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Southern Pacific Company 



(ATLANTIC SYSTEM) 



"SUNSET ROUTE" 

THIS UNRIVALED TRANS-CONTINENTAL LINE EXTENDS 
FROM THE GREAT SOUTHERN METROPOLIS, 

NEW ORLEANS 

TRAVERSING 

SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

-TO 

SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 

AND 

PORTLAND, OREGON. 



For Full Information Call On or Address, 
W. C. WATSON, General Passenger and Ticket Agent, NEW ORLEANS, LA. 



OFFICERS OF THE ATLANTIC SYSTEM. 

A. C. HUTCHINSON, PRES. M. L. & T. R. R. & S. S. Co., - - - New Orleans, LA. 

J. KRUTTSCHNITT, General Manager, Houston. Texas. 

J. G. SCHRIEVER, Traffic Manager and General Agent, - New Orleans, La. 

JNO. B. RICHARDSON, Local Treasurer, - - New Orleans, La. 






INTRODUCTORY. 



/^ VERY important question for each of us to answer, is, 
L^ where shall I locate my home? A good location means 
J prosperity. A bad location means adversity. Please read 

carefully the very full description of Southwest Louisiana along 
the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, before deciding this 
great question. Is it accessible? Is it healthy? Can I live easily? 
Can I find good society, schools, churches? Are there more or 
less advantages and disadvantages than elsewhere? The Southern 
Pacific Railroad furnishes good and fast transportation through 
this immense prairie and timber country. More than 10,000 
Northern people have located homes here, and take this means of 
reaching you with an invitation to come and help them develop the 
best partly improved field in America. We will, give you in detail 
the experiences of our best fruit experts, the best breeders and 
stock farmers, the best rice and sugar cane growers, and the best 
general farmers. A careful reading of this book will give you the 
best opinion of the best men in the country, located on the line of 
the Southern Pacific in Louisiana; men of experience North and 
South, and experts in the business which they describe, much 
better qualified to judge of comparative values, than men who 
have never lived North and South. You must summer and winter 
in a country to know it. The value of the country is no experi- 
ment, its possibilities, also, are great. Only look at what has been 
done here in ten years, in one industry, rice, by the Iowa Colony 
who introduced the twine-binding harvester only seven years ago. 
Now three thousand are in use, doing the work in harvest time 
(three months) of 100,000 men. The shipments over our Southern 
Pacific Railroad then two million pounds, 1886 and 1887; now three 
hundred millions, 1892 and 1893; with an increase of thirty-nine 
million pounds in December, 1892, over December, 1891. Every 
branch of agricultur.al industry has largely increased. Vast num- 
bers of fruit trees have been planted. Stock has been improved. 
Large quantities of hay have been cured and sent to market, and 
now attention has been turned to the sugar industry, with every 
prospect of success. This book is made and distributed at great 
expense by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, that its 
patrons may be thoroughly posted about the country along its line, 
to which they invite immigration, and where there are at least ten 
thousand Northern settlers who have been brought there by our 
agents, and whose history is a marvel of success. Read it care- 
fully and }'ou will act understandingly. 



Southwestern Louisiana 



THE PRODUCTION OF SUGAR IN LOUISIANA. 

BY PROF. S. A. KNAPP, LAKE CHARLES, LA. 

That the lands of Louisiana are well suited to the raising of 
sugar cane has been demonstrated for more than one hundred 
years. A brief mention of methods may be interesting- to the 
non-producer. The seed bed for cane is generally prepared by 
sowing cow peas on the land the season preceding planting. 
The last of August, when the peavines are in full vigor, they are 
split with a double mould-board plow, six or seven feet apart, as 
the planter deems best. At the next round the plow catches the 
furrow and giv^es it a second roll; this is continued until furrows 
meet. Thus, all the peas on six or seven feet of land across the 
field are in each row and covered with soil. At any time after 
the first of October these rows may be opened with a plow and 
two continuous lines of cane stalks placed in the bottom of the 
furrow. The cane is then covered and a roller passed over the 
land. Planting may be done from the first of October till 
February. The general plan of cultivation differs little from 
corn, and continues from February till into July, when the cane 
is supposed to shade the land. Cotton-seed meal is generally 
used as a fertili/.er. One planting produces cane two or three 
years, according to the strength of soil and the conditions of the 
winters. Harvesting continues from October till January. 

This may be said of cane : 

1. It is among the safest of farm crops. 

2. It furnishes employment nearly the whole year. 

3. It yields the largest income per acre. 

The average yield of cane per acre, where properly cultivated 
and fertilized, is seldom less than twenty tons, and of stubble 
cane (second year) fifteen tons, or thirty-five tons for two years, 
which, at present prices would be worth $140. We estimate cost of 

Seed cane, per acre.. $16.00 

Preparation of land, per acre 2.00 

Planting, per acre 4.00 

Cultivation, per acre 8.00 

Fertilizers, per acre 4.00 

Harvesting, per acre 10.00 

Total, ... . . S44.00 

The above are liberal estimates, and should be reduced con- 
siderably. The second year the total cost would be $22, as seed 



4 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

cane, preparation, and planting would be omitted. The total cost 
for two years would be $66, leaving a profit of S74 per acre for two 
years, or S37 per year. This estimate is based upon hiring the 
work done under careful supervision. One man could easily 
superintend one or two hundred acres. Should cane fall con- 
siderably below $4 per ton it would still be a profitable crop. 
It is estimated that cane can be profitably produced at ^2.50 per 
ton by small farmers who do their own work and are out of debt. 
Cane cultivation is so well adapted to the farm that it would 
become general in all the Gulf States were it not for the serious 
problems connected with the extraction of the juice and manu- 
facture of sugar. The old-time plantation mill with fifty or sixty 
per cent, extraction and open kettle boiling could not compete in 
the markets of the world with Germany and Cuba. To do this it 
was necessary for the planters of Louisiana to establish the 
central factory, with its ponderous and expensive machinery 
and its complete railway system; ^250,000 is necessary to the 
building and equipment of a first-class central factory. Such a 
sum is out of the reach of the average planter; hence he has been 
trying to get along with half or quarter equipment, or if the 
factory was secured it took several years before adjoining planters 
could change to cane farming and furnish a full supply for the 
factory. Few industries in the United States, however, have 
made more rapid advancement in the last ten years than the 
manufacture of sugar. It has now been reduced to a complete 
science. The results are exact and very satisfactory. The factory 
of the future must turn out at least two hundred pounds of 
mercantile sugar per ton of cane. The labor and fuel must be a 
minimum. The success of the large central factory is assured in 
Louisiana, paying the planter a liberal sum for his cane and 
netting a most satisfactory per cent, on the capital invested. 
The next problem in sugar making is to discover a less expensive 
method of extracting the juice of cane and yet secure a high per 
cent, of the sacharine matter. Nor is this so far from solution as 
may at first appear. It has been found that by cutting and slicing 
the cane the strain upon the first mill was greatly reduced, and that 
by using water between the mills the extraction of sacharine matter 
was increased. The small farmer remote from any central factory 
may then cut and slice his cane with a simple machine, then pass 
the cane through several sets of rollers — possibly three small 
three-roller mills — using water on the bagasse after each pressure 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN TACIFIC. 5 

and he will secure a high extraction of sacharine matter. If fuel 
is abundant as in most portions of Louisiana boiling may be done 
by open kettle, as in the olden time; at least, molasses can be 
made and shipped in tanks or barrels to the refinery. Hundreds 
of planters have made the mistake of throwing aside their small 
mills, when the best results could have been secured by increasing 
the number of mills, that is, by placing additional small mills 
behind the one in use. Down to the point of making molasses 
there is no great loss (if any) in open kettle boiling, except that 
the use of fuel is not economical; but in many portions of 
Louisiana fuel is so cheap that a small loss in economic 
methods will not affect the general problem seriously. If the 
planter will work his cane upon this plan his net profits will be 
greatly increased. Sugar planting is one of the most attractive 
kinds of farming. The crop is safe; the prices fluctuate but little, 
and the markets readily absorb the product. As soon as the old 
semi-feudal plantations are broken up and the small, thrifty 
farmer produces the cane, sending it to the central factory or 
manufacturing it at home upon improved methods, the whole 
sugar industry will be buoyant. To summarize, it may be stated 
the old methods of producing cane and manufacturing sugar used 
in the period of slavery, when labor was scarcely considered, pre- 
vailed generally in Louisiana till within the past five years. In 
the past five years there has been an earnest effort to introduce 
the most approved modern machinery in the factory and better 
the methods of production on the plantation. In the next five 
years, by the inevitable force of events, we shall see many of the 
old plantations broken up into small farms and most of the sugar 
cane of Louisiana produced by independent farmers, selling the 
cane either to the large central factory or manufacturing it upon 
the home place with the same labor that produced it. When this 
shall be accomplished there will be an era of prosperity in 
Louisiana never before witnessed in a purely agricultural com- 
munity, for there is no other general farm crop which will pro- 
duce annually Si 50 per acre, spot cash, and this without other 
expense than labor — where the manufacture is at home. It is a 
crop well suited to the genius of the American farmer, for it can 
be handled entirely by farm machinery and is certain. It furnishes 
labor the whole year, and brings large returns. Four thousand 
pounds of sugar per acre is not unusual from well-cultivated tracts 
of cane. The average farmer can realize thirty tons per acre from 



• f I 




W'^:<^=r> 








ON LINE Ol- TllK SOUTHliKN I'ACIFIC. 7 

land in cane if it be prepared and handled with care. He can 
manufacture it with improved small machinery and obtain a gross 
income of $150 to $200 per acre. Thus, without detriment to his 
general farming, the owner of 160 acres could plant twenty acres 
of cane and obtain an income of three to four thousand dollars. 

FRUIT GROWING. 

WHAT FRUIT GROWING WILL DO FOR SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA. 

T. Jay Lacy, a fruit grower in Southwestern Louisiana of over 
thirty years' practical experience, says in a letter published herein 
that fruit growing here is very profitable, giving a great variety 
of fruits in his list. He has used local markets mainly, but now 
that direct lines of railroads have been opened to our best markets 
North, we may well expect much better results. Again, there is 
more economy in car-load lots. We want more fruit growers, for 
whom there are great inducements. The Southern fruits generally 
have excellent keeping qualities. The experimental stage is 
passing away, and the successful varieties are becoming well 
known. Intelligent local nurserymen will give you on applica- 
tion a list of fruits adapted to soil and climate of your particular 
locality. With the introduction of the hardy budded varieties of 
oranges, the area of successful production has been widened to 
include the prairie region. These orange trees generally bear 
the second year from setting out. The Creole or Louisiana bears 
after ten years. The budded oranges bring the highest price in 
market. Another very important fact is that detached groves on 
the prairie will be less liable to disease and insect pests than on 
old orange ground or in the vicinity of other orchards. Another 
valuable feature is the fact of continuous blooming in spring, so 
that if the early bloom is caught by the frost, a second or third 
blooming will be successful. Peach growing is a serious question 
for experts. Can we beat the curculio? The trees do well. Open 
winters, late frosts, wet seasons and curculio are all difficulties to 
be overcome. We always have more or less peaches. Plums of 
certain varieties and of the best do well, but must have careful 
handling to yield a profit. Pears are receiving more attention 
than any other fruit. Large orchards are and have been planted 
all over Southwestern Louisiana. At Jennings fully 10,000 pear 
trees have been put in orchards, Leconte and Keifer leading all 
others. They are considered a success along the line of the 
Southern Pacific Railroad, through Louisiana and Texas. Dew- 



8 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

berries, blackberries and strawberries are very successful. The 
mayhaw, growing wild and in great abundance, rivals the guava for 
jelly; and the fig, queen of fruits, is most prolific and valuable of 
all. The best variety for Louisiana is the native celeste, or purple 
sugar fig, the easiest to propagate, surest to grow, hardiest, most 
prolific, and best quality, best size, for the best uses that can be 
made of the fig. No pruning, early bearing, sweet as honey, good 
for man or beast. It seems to me to be a proper emblem of the 
tree of life (or the tree itself), escaped from the garden, of which 
if a man eat he should live forever. Figs can be grown in South- 
western Louisiana at one cent a pound. The average yield is 500 to 
1,000 pounds. Average price for canning, four cents. 100 trees per 
acre will bear at ten years old 500 pounds each, making 50,000 
pounds at four cents — $2,000 per acre, or $500 per acre at one cent 
a pound. Celeste figs ripen first of July, and you can gather ripe 
figs for nearly two months from every tree, as once figs always 
figs, no off years, and the tree lives to be seventy-five or one 
hundred years old. The older the tree, the sweeter the fruit. The 
fig tree has the form of the cabbage, the size of the apple, is 
inclined to spread from early killing by freezing. Let her spread! 
You get more fruit, with less trouble to pick. It never blooms, 
puts out leaves and fruit late. "When the fig tree puts forth her 
leaves, then know that summer is nigh." A few figs put out 
early, called blossom figs, generally killed by frost. The main 
crop comes with the leaves and after — just pop out through the 
bark at base of the leaf like a bud, grow slowly until about ripen- 
ing, when, presto change! they come out like popping corn, the 
sweetest, most wholesome morsel in the gift of the gods. There 
is a mistaken notion that fig leaves are. a proper material for 
clothing in tropical climates. The fact is there are so many 
excellent fiber plants South that it would be invidious to make 
any one prominent. 

S. L. Gary, Esq. 

Dear Sir: — Fruit growing in Southwest Louisiana is very pro- 
fitable. Northern fruits do not succeed here, but Chinese and 
Japanese varieties are a wonder to behold. Chinese pears may 
be grown here as bountifully as apples in the North, and for size 
and quality cannot be surpassed anywhere in the world, and if I 
should tell you of the marvelous crops I grow here, you would 
think it more like a fairy story than a reality. Japanese plums 



ON LINE OF TIIK SOUTHERN rACIEIC. 9 

grow here as large as a peach, and of such cxc[uisite flavor that I 
am now throwing away all of my American and luiropean varie- 
ties, as they are worthless in comparison with the Japanese varie- 
ties. Many kinds of Japanese persimmons arc grown here, which 
are as large as apples and without seeds. We cut them open and 
eat out the meat with a spoon, as you would a custard. They 
keep well, ship well, and will always sell for a good price, as they 
can not be grown very far north. Many varieties of oranges are 
grown in Southwest Louisiana. The Louisiana orange, the man- 
darine, and other tender varieties grow well near the Gulf, while 
the Japanese varieties, being more hardy, grow further north. 
They will stand fifteen degrees above zero. Of these oranges 
there are many varieties. I prefer the Oonshiu and Kin Kan to 
all others. Their fine flavor and abundant bearing will recom- 
mend them wherever known, and, like all the Japanese fruits in 
this climate, the trees bear when very young. Many varieties of 
grapes grow here; I have found the Scuppernong the most profit- 
able, as it bears abundantly and needs no pruning. Strawberries 
may now be made very profitable, since we have a direct railroad 
to the Northern markets. Besides the foregoing, there are many 
other fruits that may be grown here, for home use and for market, 
such as figs, loquats, goumii, Japanese chestnuts, pecans, etc. In 
conclusion I wish to say, that with Chinese and Japanese fruits I 
have made good crops with ordinary culture, which always sold 
for high prices, and I see no reason why others may not do the 
same. Yours truly, 

T. Jay Lacy, 
Mount Hope Nursery, Washington, La. 
S. L. Gary, Esq. 

Dear Sir: — I came to Louisiana seven years ago with the pur- 
pose, chiefly, of growing oranges, and at this date am well satis- 
fied with the venture. At the present time I have 2,000 trees 
growing in orchard, 500 of them just coming into bearing. Three 
years ago last April I set out 500 budded trees. Two years later 
they bore from ten to one hundred oranges to the tree. Next 
year I expect them to bear enough to pay me for all the expense 
I have been to in bringing them to their present state. During 
the present winter I will set 2,000 more budded trees. At eight 
years old, with proper care and cultivation, they will bear from 
1,000 to 2,000 oranges to the tree. At the present low price of 
oranges this will bring me S800 per acre, with but little more care 



10 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

and expense than an apple or peach orchard would require. At 
Lake Side and vicinity 15,000 orange trees have been set during 
the last season, and as many more will be planted this season. 
One grove alone will contain 10,000 trees by the end of the 
present winter. One of my neighbors has a grove set forty-seven 
years ago, in which some of the trees measure two feet in dia- 
meter and sometimes bear as many as 8,000 oranges to the tree. 
We have another fruit at Lake Side which is just beginning to 
attract notice, and that is the guava. Its special use is for jelly, 
which is the finest in the world. It grows and bears abundantly 
in this climate, and is destined soon to be found on every fruit 
grower's place. I have also on my place fifty lemon trees, many 
of which fruited the past year, and the fruit is of excellent quality. 
Back from the lake a number of fine pear orchards are to be seen. 
The few old pear trees in the neighborhood bear well and are 
long lived. Peach trees also grow well and continue bearing for 
twenty or thirty years. Until recently only selected seedlings 
have been grown. Three years ago last spring I set out twenty 
honey peach trees. They have made a splendid growth, and last 
year and this they bore heavy crops of fine fruit, which ripens in 
June. Fruit growing is in its infancy at Lake Side, but we can 
see what may be done by looking at the few old groves and 
orchards around us. Only a trip around the lake shore is needed 
to convince the most skeptical of the possibilities of what may 
be accomplished in the line of citrus and other sub-tropical fruits 
at Lake Side. Very truly yours, 

E. I. Hall, M. D., Lake Side, La. 

S. L. Cary. Audubon Park, New Orleans, La., March 17, 1893. 

My Dear Sir: — You desire information relative to the hardier 
varieties of oranges. The past winter has been exceptionally fine 
for testing the hardy qualities of the different varieties of citrus 
fruits. In our experimental grove here there were over 125 
varieties of citrus fruits, covering every obtainable variety of 
orange, lemon, lime, pomelo, shaddock, citron and kumquat. 
These trees were from one to three years old and included 
seedlings and budded stock. For the latter, the sweet, bitter 
sweet and sour orange, the rough lemon, the grape fruit and the 
citrus trifoliata were used. The winter has been intensely severe, 
the thermometer going down, on December 27 and 28, to 21° 
Fahrenheit, and remaining near this point for forty-eight hours. 
This cold spell was the first of the season and caught the trees in 



ON LINK ()|- TllK SOUTHERN PACIFIC. II 

full sap. The winter lias been more or less cold and chilly ever 
since. Now that the spring has opened and our trees are in full 
bloom, the damage from frost can be accurately estimated. The 
following are the results: The limes are killed; many of the 
lemons and citrons are dead. A few shaddocks survive, while 
the pomelos, oranges and kumquats are very generally living. 
Of the one hundred varieties of oranges less than five per cent, 
are killed, and these invariably the unhealthy specimens which 
had recently received our attention. Many varieties suffered 
defoliation, but have, with the opening of the spring, assumed full 
leaf again. The satsumas, the tangerines and mandarines were 
not hurt in the least. In fact, the satsumas did not lose a leaf, 
and all of them to-day are in full bloom. These hardier varieties, 
grafted or budded on the hardier stocks, can be grown anywhere 
in South Louisiana, and I anticipate the day as not far distant 
when the satsuma will be found growing around every home in the 
Gulf States. For full particulars concerning oranges, sec Special 
Bulletin, recently issued by this Station. 

In regard to sugar cane in your country, it may be asserted 
that its successful cultivation has passed beyond the experimental 
stage and has become nil fait accompli. The success of the Calca- 
sieu Sugar Factory, and the easy culture of your soil, together 
with the superior richness in sucrose of your cane, all conspire to 
confirm the opinion, long since expressed, that your section of the 
State would some day become a veritable "sugar-bowl." 

Of the prospects of successfully growing tobacco in your sec- 
tion, I cannot positively speak. North of you, in the pine hills, 
the finest yellow leaf has been successfully and profitably grown, 
and the area devoted to this crop is annually increasing. Soon 
North Louisiana will become one of the tobacco sections of the 
United States. I see no reason why your prairie section should 
not grow tobacco equally as bright and valuable as North Louis- 
iana, and I hope proper experiments to test this question will 
soon be made. A Tobacco Bulletin, No. 20, covering all the 
questions and information as regards this plant, has recently been 
issued by the North Louisiana Experiment Station, and may be 
had by addressing this office. 

Trusting you may meet with the success that your persistent 
efforts in a most worthy cause so justly merit, I am, with consid- 
erations of high regard. Yours truly, 

William C. Stubbs, 
Director Louisiana Sugar Experiment Station. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. I3 

TRUCK FARMING. 

Truck farming, according to the census of 189G, is most re- 
munerating, paying an average of $150 per acre, and over5250 for 
every man, woman and child employed in the business. The 
very early and late season, without frost, give to our products 
a peculiar value. For instance, it costs no more to grow a straw- 
berry in February that sells at fifty c»nts to one dollar a quart, than 
it does to grow strawberries in June that sell at five to ten cents per 
quart. Climate is of great value, but costs you nothing, but its 
operations are often very expensive or the reverse. Truck raised 
South has good keeping qualities, can be shipped long distances. 
One hundred miles nearer the Gulf of Mexico may give you thirty 
days earlier products, while the time for transportation will be 
only a matter of two or three hours. We want expert truckmen by 
the hundred at all our villages, that cars may be loaded at any one 
point. The advantages of truck farming over general farming are 
very many. It requires less land; it is much easier to get help, 
and you do not need to keep laborers when not needed. You need 
not burden you wife with the care of help. Your location is in or 
near town. Schools, churches, lectures, and the circus, doctors, 
stores, shops, are all near by. Your property, kept in order, is 
always attractive and salable. Your business is surer than the fruit 
grower's, better than the farmer's, as good as the bank. 

CLIMATE. 

We give you an address given by Capt. R. E. Kerkam, U. S. 
Signal Corps Director, Louisiana Weather Service, at a conven- 
tion of Northern residents of Louisiana, held at New Orleans, 
August 7 and 8, 1888. Then read and learn the climates of Cali- 
fornia, Florida, and earth's most favored regions, and South- 
western Louisiana will discount them all. You ask, how excel 
California? I answer, we have no "wet and dry" season. How 
about Florida? I answer, we have no sand. How about Mexico 
and South America? We have as good climate, backed by a 
stable government. We have a climate and soil best adapted to 
the largest paying field crops, sugar cane and rice, and adapted to 
the largest variety of paying products grown anywhere. 

Mr. Chairfnan, Ladies and Gentlemen: — It affords me pleasure 
as a representative of the National Signal Service, to be able to 
bring the work of the Service before this convention in a practi- 



14 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

cal manner, and to prove by official records that the climate of 
Louisiana is more agreeable the year 'round than that of any other 
section in the United States. To do this a series of comparisons 
will be necessary, and to avoid a lengthy dissertation on the sub- 
ject, by States, we will consider only the sections embraced by the 
extreme Northwest, the Upper Mississippi and Missouri Valleys, 
and the Pacific Coast Region. - 

These sections have been taken for comparison, not because 
they make Louisiana's claims stronger for the immigrant, but be- 
cause they include a greater acreage of farming lands and are 
considered the best in the Union. Should a doubt exist in any 
mind that a choice was made, it can readily be dispelled by a 
glance at the weather map displayed here. 

Considering the extreme degree of heat, the normal mean 
maximum temperature, for the hottest month, July, we find from 
Signal Service records that the section of country from southern 
Illinois and southeastern Missouri to central Minnesota has an 
average of 84°, with an average of the lowest temperatures for 
the same month of 66°, making the average daily range of tem- 
perature 18°. The same figures for the same month for the sec- 
tion of country from southwestern Missouri to central Dakota 
are, average highest, 85°, average lowest, 63°, making the average 
daily range 22°. For the section of country embracing northern 
Minnesota and northern Dakota, we find an average highest tem- 
perature of 78°, an average lowest of 55°, making an average daily 
range of 23°. For Louisiana, for the same month, the average 
highest was gi°, average lowest 74°, making an average daily 
range of 17°. 

Considering the coldest month: It is found that the first 
named section (the Upper Mississippi Valley) had an average 
highest temperature for January of 31", and an average lowest of 
13'', making an average daily range of 18". For the second 
section (the Missouri Valley) for the month of January has an 
average highest temperature of 25°, an average lowest of 3", with 
an average daily range of temperature of 22°. The third named 
section (the extreme Northwest) has an average highest tempera- 
ture for January of 9°, an average lowest of 13° below zero, mak- 
ing the average daily range of temperature 22°. Louisiana has 
for the same month an average highest temperature of 59°, an 
average lowest of 44 ', malcing the average daily range for the 
month 15'. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 1$ 

To consider the hii^hest and lowest temperatures recorded on 
any day at any of the stations in the various districts: 

It is found that the maximum temperature for the Mississippi 
Valley for summer is 103°, recorded at Des Moines, Iowa, and 
at Cairo, 111. The lowest temperature for that section in winter 
is recorded as 43° below zero, at La Crosse, Wis., or an absolute 
range of temperature of 146°. The highest temperature on record 
for the Missouri Valley is lii°, recorded at Fort Sully, in South 
Dakota. The lowest temperature for that section is 42" below 
zero, at Fort Bennett in South Dakota, making the absolute range 
of temperature for the Missouri Valley 153°. The third section, 
(the extreme Northwest), has a highest temperature of 107°, re- 
corded at Fort Buford, North Dakota, and a lowest temperature 
of 59° below zero, recorded at Pembina, North Dakota, making 
the absolute range of temperature for the extreme Northwest 
166°. The highest temperature on record for northern Louisiana 
is 107° recorded at Shreveport, and the highest on record for 
southern Louisiana is 97° at New Orleans. The lowest tempera- 
ture on record for northern Louisiana is 6° at Shreveport, and the 
lowest for southern Louisiana is 20° at New Orleans, making the 
absolute range of temperature for the northern part of the State 
lOK, and for the southern part 77^, the latter range being less 
than one-half of the range of either of the three sections quoted. 

To compare the mean relative humidity of the various sec- 
tions: From a record covering from 1870 to 1885, the mean an- 
nual relative humidity of the Upper Mississippi Valley is com- 
puted to be 69 per cent., the mean for the Missouri Valley is 69 
per cent., the mean for the extreme Northwest is 74 per cent., and 
the mean for Louisiana is 71 per cent., being but two per cent, 
above the average for the two first-named and three per cent, be- 
low the latter. The highest mean monthly during the year in 
Louisiana, is but 74 per cent., whereas the highest in either of the 
other sections is 91 per cent. 

The rainfall of the sections under consideration is as follows: 
The average annual for the Upper Mississippi Valley is 39 inches, 
the greater part of it falling during the summer months. The 
average for the Missouri Valley is 29 inches, the greater part of 
which falls in May, June and July. The average for the extreme 
Northwest is 21 inches, majority of which falls during the summer. 
The average for Louisiana is 60 inches, ranging from 4 to 6 inches 
for each month during the year. 



l6 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

From the foregoing official records it is plain that there is no 
section east of the Rocky Mountains that can compete with 
Louisiana in climate. If we have rivals, they alone exist in sec- 
tions of Oregon and California. 

The following are extracts of reports for those States: 

The State of California has an average annual temperature 
ranging from 51° to 55° on the coast, to 62° in the interior, against 
a normal annual temperature for Louisiana of from 65° in the 
northern portion of the State to 68° in the southern portion. 
California has an average annual rainfall of from 1 1 inches at San 
Diego to 28 inches at Red Bluff. An average annual relative 
humidity of from 54 to 82 per cent. — San Francisco having an 
average of 75 per cent, and San Diego 73 per cent, against an 
average for Louisiana of 71 per cent. 

The highest temperature at Los Angeles, Cal., is 108°; at Red 
Bluff, 110°; at Sacramento, 106°; and coast maximums ranging 
from 90° to 101°. At Davisville and Dunnigan, Cal., maximum 
temperature of 118° was recorded. 

The lowest temperatures for that State range from 16° to 33°, 
the highest minimums being reported from stations on the coast. 
The lowest temperature recorded on the Louisiana coast is 34°. 

Westerly winds prevail in California, blowing from the ocean. 
In Louisiana southerly winds prevail, blowing from the Gulf. 

In the matter of clear, fair and cloudy days, California has 
doubtless a greater amount of sunshine during the summer 
months, with almost a total lack of rainfall. During the winter 
months, fogs are very frequent in California. The rainfall in 
Louisiana is evenly distributed throughout the year with an 
absence of the foggy days. 

Climatically speaking the therapeutic area of southern Cali- 
fornia is small. It is limited to those localities only which are 
directly influenced by the ocean breeze, and extends but a few 
miles inland. In the valleys back from the coast, the summer 
heat becomes unbearable, there is but slight vegetation, and good 
water is not easily procured. The winters are, however, mild and 
dry. Only a few inches of rain falls annually, and out-door life 
is practicable. 

Oregon claims several distinct climates within its borders: 
on the coast the rainfall averages from 39 to 79 inches; in the 
Willamette valley from 41 to 67 inches; and in the remainder of 
the State from 9 to 35 inches annually. The rainy season begins 



ON LINE OF THP: SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 1/ 

about October 15 and ends about May i. Regarding the tem- 
perature it is sufficient to state that the range in the interior 
of Oregon is from 22° below zero to 106° above. Killing frosts 
occur on an average of 9 months during the year. 

Louisiana has but one climate, and that well defined. We 
have hot weather, but we have also the cool Gulf breeze extending 
inland, reaching the extreme northern portion of the State, which 
has, however, a somewhat higher temperature than that recorded 
in the southern portion during the summer. The rainfall and 
moisture in the atmosphere are nearly the same, being slightly 
less north than south. The summers are long, but necessarily so 
for the crops that are grown. 

Louisiana's comparative immunity from killing frosts is 
graphically portrayed on the small chart on the lower corner of 
the weather map. It will be seen that the extreme northern part 
of this State has the advantage of northern Florida in this par- 
ticular, and that the southern part of Louisiana from Avoyelles 
Parish to the Gulf has no rival save the southern portion of 
Florida Peninsula. This is explainable by the fact that the 
majority of the cold waves that sweep southward over the 
country during the winter season are deflected east of Louisiana, 
and for the following reason: The atmosphere moves in huge 
waves similar to water. The cold wave is the base of the crest 
of this wave, and the hollow between the crests is the storm 
centre. A storm off the Texas coast and a cold wave forming in 
the Northwest are conditions suitable for a great fall in tempera- 
ture between those regions, since the air resting on the surface of 
the earth moves out from under a high pressure, flowing in the 
direction of a lower pressure, which in this case would mean cold 
northerly winds flowing from the Northwest to Texas. But since 
all movements of the atmosphere have an eastward tendency, 
the storm that was in the Gulf yesterday will be found hundreds 
of miles to the eastward to-day, and the cold wave sweeping 
down from the Northwest has had its attraction removed and the 
cold surface winds are now from the Northwe^st. Another cause 
of the immunity we have from these cold waves is that there is a 
wall of warm moist air overhanging the Gulf, extending over the 
interior of the State, and the intermingling of the mass of cold 
air from the north with this warm air is seldom accomplished 
before both masses have passed eastward out of range of the 
State. 



15 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

Another cause is that storms having their origin on the eastern 
Rocky Mountain slope have for an attraction the great lakes, 
since all storms will move toward a humid atmosphere and to 
where they have a clear sweep, thus accounting for the great 
number of our cyclones moving out the St. Lawrence valley. 

It must not be understood from the foregoing that Louisiana 
has no cold waves, for during the past winter (my first in the 
South) the temperature in this city fell to 29° above zero; but 
while we escaped with that temperature, caused by a high pressure 
of air that swept down below a storm having its origin in Indiana, 
Florida on the same latitude had a temperature lower than that 
recorded here. [Great Applause.] 

Note: The data from which the foregoing has been compiled are from 
Signal Service records covering the period from November i, 1870 to January 
I, 1885, and do not include the cold wave of January, 1886, when minimum 
temperatures of from 5 to 10 degrees below any previous record were reported 
from the majority of Southern and Eastern States. 

LOUISIANA WEATHER SERVICE. 

SOUTH LOUISIANA. 

Spring has a normal mean temperature ranging between 66° 
in west and north portions, to nearly 70° in southeast portion; the 
highest temperature ranges between 93° in southeast portion to 
98° in west-central portion; the lowest on record ranges between 
20° in west-central portion to 30° in southeast portion, and 35° 
along the east Gulf coast. The sunshine averages 54 per cent. 
The rainfall averages between 9 and 14 inches; the former in 
southwest portion, and latter in the extreme north portion, with 
the east portion having a uniform fall of 12 inches. 

Summer has a normal mean temperature of 80°, being 79° in 
west portion, and 81° in extreme east portion. The highest tem- 
peratures on record range between 97° in southeast portion and 
101° in west portion; the lowest ranges between 50° in west por- 
tion to 58° in southeast portion. The sunshine averages 53 per 
cent, in cast portion and 47 to 50 per cent, in west portion. The 
rainfall varies between 16 inches in eastern half to less than 19 
inches in western half. 

Autumn has a normal mean temperature between 65° and 70°, 
the former in west portion, and latter in southeast portion. The 
highest temperatures on record range between 94° and 98°; the 
lowest between 22" and 25°. The sunshine averages 55 per cent. 



ON LINE CF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. IQ 

and is greatest in southeast portion. The rainfall averages from 
10 to 13 inches. 

Winter has an average temperature of 55", being 54" in west 
and north portions and 56 ' in southeast portion. The highest 
temperature on record ranges between 82" and 88", the latter 
in west portion; the lowest, between 10° and 15°; the former in 
west and north portions. The sunshine gives a general average 
of 47 per cent. The rainfall ranges from 12 to less than 16 
inches; the latter in northeast portion, and former in southwest. 

ADVANTAGES OF CLIMATE. 

In order to provoke discussion and diffuse knowledge of the 
utmost importance to man, I give a few suggestions derived 
mainly from experience. My first suggestion is that extremes 
are injurious to the best interests of man. The life of man, beast 
or vegetable is dwarfed, shattered or killed outright by our cold 
climate, and is injured to some extent by torrid heat, the excep- 
tions being the superior development of vegetable and animal 
life in the tropics. In the struggle for life nature's greatest effort, 
her largest expenditure of force, is to counteract the vicissitudes 
of climate. Then it follows, the polar region is most unfitted for 
the abode of man and the temperate zones most favorable to life 
and its proper development. 

Now, man having power of choice and means of transportation 
should fairly consider these conditions and place himself where 
he will receive most benefit from climate, seeing that the climatic 
condition cannot be changed, but man's condition may be. Then 
comes the question what part of the temperate zone is the most 
favorable; and for present purposes let us say of the United 
States? 

Then I say, (other things being equal), where you can have 
most of life's blessings, with the least expenditure of labor; also 
where we require least protection from extremes, and where most 
of the necessities and comforts of life can be produced on the 
spot; where we can raise the greatest variety and where we have 
best markets and means of exchange. 

Where have we the most even climate and the cheapest pro- 
tection against extremes? I answer, confidently, the coast line 
of the Gulf of Mexico. One season merges almost imperceptibly 
into another; extreme heat and cold, about 70°, and climatic 
changes very gradual, about 20 , covers the changes of the twenty- 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 21 

four hours, and 5"" to 10 ' from month to month. Corn can be 
planted from February to July, and gardens made from January 
to November, and fuel and lumber had at nominal prices; wool and 
cotton at lowest price; stock of all kinds roam over the prairies at 
will and are never fed by the hand of man. 

The cereals here require same labor as further north, but at a 
more seasonable time. Fall-sown crops mature and are harvested 
in May, while sugar, cotton, hay and rice are harvested from 
August to Januar}'. There is little to do during the heated term; 
and fruits, delicious fruits, luxuries of life, necessities of 
health, solace our leisure hours. Where are our orchards to- 
day? Follow the coast line, and you will see nearly all. The 
peach king of the world, Parnell, of Georgia; and for pears, 
Thomasville, of same State; for tropical and semi-tropical fruits 
the coast line alone, while figs, apricots, prunes, olives, grapes, 
pomegranates and berries are in abundance. Go to the coast for 
fish, oysters, game, sugar, rice, cotton, tobacco, corn and textile 
fabrics. 

Here flourish walnuts, pecans, almonds and most nut-bearing 
trees. It's eminently a tree bearing country — a prairie only by 
accident. 

But, says the Northern man, living comes too easy; you will 
lose energy, your vigor will abate, and ignorance and indolence 
will be your inheritance. Does it follow, or is it not a fact that 
success induces energy, and failure brings despondency and 
sloth? When my efforts are successful, will I not renew them? 
When I plant a successful orchard, will I not enlarge it? 

The results of unfavorable conditions are often mistaken for 
results of climate (slavery for instance). That the very highest 
degree of success has been attained in a similar climate, all will 
admit. (I refer to Greece and Rome.) The successful raising of 
fruits is one of the fine arts; a good orchard is the work of an 
able man. Does chilling the body improve the mind? Does 
freezing improve the quality of man, beast or vegetable? Does 
the heat of a tropical sun give energy or ambition? Neither 
extreme is favorable. But give me a genial clime, a generous 
soil, clouds laden with moisture and skies sparkling with dew — a 
land where human effort meets a kind return; where fruit trees 
grow to maturity in shortest time and where returns are made 
with largest liberality. 

Men are only thankful for favors received and always respond 



22 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

promptly to the touch of plenty. Pinchnig cold, chattering teeth, 
frost-bitten limbs awake neither intelligence, enterprise, thankful- 
ness or genius in man. We love to work in comfort — neither hot 
nor cold, but on the middle plane; no cold to freeze or heat to 
burn. And this most favorable place and these most favorable 
conditions we find in Southwest Louisiana, the future home of the 
orchards of America, where the finest quality of fruits are raised 
without irrigation, with little care, on a clay soil, which gives 
highest flavor and best success in raising trees from cuttings, 
thereby avoiding the expense of budding and grafting, insuring 
more abundant crops of the finest varieties, and so situated that 
fruit picked by day can reach a seaboard market by the next 
morning, and the home of its most enterprising and prosperous 
people. A land of grass, a land of fruit, a land of easy conditions 
and great natural advantages? 

WHY THEY NEVER FEEL THE COLD. 

" Yes," remarked the St. Paul man to a friend from Chicago, 
as he stood arrayed in his blanket suit and adjusted a couple of 
buckskin chest protectors: "Yes, there is something about the air 
in this Northwestern climate which causes a person not to notice 
the cold. Its extreme dryness," he continued, as he drew on 
a pair of extra woolen socks, a pair of Scandinavian skeep-skin 
boots, and some Alaska overshoes — "its extreme dryness makes 
a degree of cold, reckoned by the mercury, which would be un- 
bearable in other latitudes, simply exhilarating here. I have 
suffered more with the cold in Michigan, for instance," he added, 
as he drew on a pair of goat-skin leggings, adjusted a double fur 
cap, and tied on some Esquimax ear muffs — " in Michigan or 
Illinois, we will say, with the thermometer at zero or above, than 
I have here with it at 45 to 50 below. The dryness of our winter 
air is certainly remarkable," he went on, as he wound a couple 
rods of red woolen scarf about his neck, wrapped a dozen news- 
papers around his body, drew on a fall cloth overcoat, a winter 
cloth overcoat, a light buffalo skin overcoat, and a heavy polar 
bear skin overcoat; " no, if you have never enjoyed our glorious 
Minnesota winter climate with its dry atmosphere, its bright sun- 
shine, and invigorating ozone, you would scarcely believe some 
things I could tell you about it. The air is so dry," he continued, 
as he adjusted his leather nose protector, drew on his reindeer 
skin mittens, and carefully closed one eye hole in the sealskin 



ON MM'. OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 23 

mask he drew down from his cap — " its so dry that actually it 
seems next to impossible to feel the cold at all. We can scarcely 
realize in the spring that we have had winter, owing to the extreme 
dryness of the atmosphere. By the way," he went on, turning to 
his wife, "just bring me a couple of blankets and those bed quilts 
and throw over my shoulders, and hand me that muff with the 
hot soapstone in it, and now I'll take a pull at this jug of brandy 
and whale oil, and then if you'll have the girl bring me my snow 
shoes and iceberg scaling stick, I'll step over and see them pry the 
workmen off the top of the ice palace who were frozen on yester- 
day. I tell you we would'nt be going out this way, 500 miles 
further south, where the air is damp and chilly. Nothing but our 
dry air makes it possible." — Chicago Tribune. 

RICE. 

ITS CULTIVATION ON THE PRAIRIES OF SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA. — DOES IT PAY? 

Rice is a cereal plant of the genus oryza. It is cultivated in 
all warm climates and forms a large part of the food of those 
countries. It is light and nutritious and very easy of digestion 
It is a staple of commerce all over the world and is largely used 
in the United States. 

Heretofore our supplies were mainly from Japan, China and 
the Carolinas. Laterly Louisiana has come into the market as a 
rice-producing country, and by the use of improved machinery in 
cultivating and harvesting has stepped to the front rank as a rice- 
producing State. 

The rough rice is sown on new or old land prepared as for 
other grain. One bushel (44 pounds) per acre is sufficient. 

Level land capable of flooding is best. Soil, clay loam with 
clay sub-soil. Levees should be prepared as long as possible 
before seeding, and field should be flooded when rice is 6 to 12 
inches high, with 4 to 12 inches of water. Sow from March 10 to 
June 20, and harvest in August, September and October. 

In appearance rice much resembles wheat in its early growth. 
The head more nearly resembles oats, but the kernels resemble 
barley and are more closely packed in the head than oats. It 
stools thickly, having thirty to one hundred straws from one seed 
and one hundred to four hundred seeds in a head. It is the only 
small cereal plant that yields the hundredfold of Scripture. 

Rice raisincf for commerce beijan in Southwestern Louisiana 



ON LINK OF THE SOUTHERN PACIEIC. 25 

with the advent of the Iowa Colony and twine-binding' harvesters, 
in 1884, when Maurice Brien, of Jennings, La., put a twine-binder 
in the field. 

In 1883 five acres was about the largest field; since then the 
growth has been rapid, as figures show. 

The Southern Pacific Railroad shipped in 1886, 2,000,000 
pounds; 1887, 4,000,000 pounds; 1888, 8,000,000 pounds; 1889, 
16,000,000 pounds; 1890, 60,000,000 pounds; 1891, 180,000,000 
pounds; 1892 and 1893, 300,000,000 pounds. 

In 1884 there was used i twine-biiider. 

In 1885 there were used 5 twine4iinders. 

In 1886 there were used 50 twine-hinders. 

In 1887 there were used 200 twine-binders. 

In 1888 there were used 400 twine-binders. 

In 1890 there were used 1,000 twine-binders. 

In 1891 there were used. 2,000 twine-binders. 

In i8g2 there were used 3,000 twinc-bindcrs. 

The Southern Pacific Railroad shipped in :88<, about 250 cars 
of rice between Lake Charles and La Layette; in 1889, over 1,000 
cars; in 1890, 2,000 cars; 1891, 5,000 cars; and for 1892 and 1893, 
10,000 cars. 

With good cultivation and care rice yields fifteen barrels (60 
bushels) per acre. This has brought an average of $3 per barrel 
— $45 per acre. 

The cost of growing, harvesting and marketing will generally 
reach $1 per barrel, say $15 per acre, unless you have to pump 
water by steam. Most of the rice is raised by natural irrigation, 
rain, water flowing from higher lands and held by levees. 

Cost of growing an acre of rice, say fifteen barrels, is 
Si 5 and fifteen barrels of rice at the average, $3, is $45, leav- 
ing S30 net. 

Cost of raising ten barrels, about $10; value of ten barrels is 
$30, leaving S20 net. 

W. W. Duson, at Crowley, has 2,000 acres of good rice; John 
Watt, of Jennings, 200 acres; F. B. Cutting, 300; L. W. Sockriden, 
75; G. Brown, 75; L. L. Morse, 250; O. W. Simmons, 40; G. H. 
Morse, 200; Wm. H. Harris, 150; Maurice Brien, 100; Cary & 
Bibbins, 350, and A. D. McFarlain, of Jennings, 1,025. A much 
larger area will be planted next year. The total rice crop along 
the Atlantic Coast, 1889, was 190,000 sacks. Louisiana raised 
642,053 sacks. 



26 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

Our imports were about 500,000 sacks, 225 pounds of clean 
rice each. The total consumption of domestic and foreign rice 
{Timcs-Denwcrat, September i,) is as follows: 

Domestic Foreign 

Sacks. Sacks. 

1884 490,000 333.000 

1885 600,000 246,000 

1886 615,000 208,000 

1887 448,000 410,000 

1888. . 465,000 4gi,ooo 

i8go 500,000 450,000 

1891 600,000 500,000 

1892— estimated 600,000 620,000 

Since writing the first part of this article, the increase of 
production in Southwestern Louisiana has been so great that it 
has been impossible to handle the crop, economically, and the 
immediate result has been low prices, not so much for the clean 
product but mainly on the rough rice in farmer's hands, for which 
the average price in first hands has been ^2 per barrel of 162 
pounds of rough. This is equivalent to a price of three cents a 
pound for the clean rice, and it becomes a serious problem to the 
planter (the future price). "The present price is usually the best 
opinion of the best men in the market." If so, then can the 
Louisiana planter compete with the old established planters in 
Carolina and on the Mississippi? I believe that Louisiana has the 
field, for many reasons: peculiarity of soil, heavy clay, supporting 
with ease the best agricultural machinery. One man with a 
machine and four mules has the working power of forty with a 
sickle. We have an abundant rainfall, supplemented by steam 
pumps and engines on hand, and numerous rivers and lakes to 
draw from, also a very long season in which to operate — from 
November to July for plowing and preparing ground and levees; 
]\Iarch, April, May and June for seeding; August, September, 
October and November for threshing and marketing. Rice can 
be grown and marketed at a cost of g 1.50 per barrel of 162 pounds 
of rough. All above .is a clear profit. Wheat, oats and corn are 
grown North and sold at actual cost of growing, and lands are 
sold at $30 to $100 per acre where those conditions exist. I hear 
it rumored that our competitors are out of the race at $2 a barrel. 
I do not hesitate to say that Southwestern Louisiana, with her 
improved machinery, her generous soil, wonderful climate and 
easy conditions, her splendid people, will be able still to let out a 
link or two and grow rice at a good round profit for ;^i a sack. 



ON LINK OF THE SOUTHERN I'ACII'IC. 2'] 

I do not expect to see prices that low; at the same time I believe 
the day of high prices for all manufactured products is past and 
I am glad of it. The day is near w hen eight hours' work will give 
each one a full day's rations. y\ large part of the rice grown 
should be consumed on our farms. There is no better feed for 
stock, and none cheaper at present prices. Its uses will broaden 
with present low prices. The good rice land is limited in quantity, 
and as population increases and its value as a food plant is made 
known, the tendency will be to stimulate prices and production. 

Egyptian or soft rice is best feed for stock, and some claim 
better yields and with less water. The country has been flooded 
not only WTth water but with machinery, yet notwithstanding the 
low prices collections are much better than elsewhere. The first 
receipt of new rice in 1891 was August 31; i8go, July 31; 1889, 
August i; 1888, July 29. Canals, artesian wells, pumps, engines, 
windmills and improved machinery are wanted, and fortunes 
await the industrious men of genius and enterprise. Labor and 
intelligence are at a higher premium here than elsewhere. The 
crop of Louisiana for 1892 will reach 2,000,006 of sacks=200,ooo,ooo 
pounds of rough rice=i 12,000,000 pounds of clean rice, at four 
cents a pound=^4, 448,000. If Louisiana grows 112,000,000 
pounds of clean rice, then the balance of the Gulf States will 
grow about one-third as much, giving for the domestic product 
150,000,000 pounds of clean, so we will have to import as much to 
equal consumption. 

Better and cheaper methods of production are being adopted 
each year. But the broadening uses and increasing population 
will doubtless keep pace with production. Rice, sugar and cotton 
are the three mystic links that bind Louisiana to the greatest 
prosperity. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 



29 



Statement of Rice Shipments from Louisiana Western Railroad for 
October, November and December, 1892 and 1891. 



Vinton 

Kdgerly 

Westlake 

*Lake Charles.. . 

Welsh 

Jennings 

Mernienteau 

Crowley 

Rayne 

Scott 

La. West. R. R.. 



Totals, 



OCTOBER. 

1892. ! i8q 



22,500 

489.807 



759.554 

1.576,325 



187,820 



134,780 
6So,78'; 
388,323 



1,964,9391 1,091,320 

6,866,820 6,382,010 

4,4t;3.2c,9 2,176.781 

932,8581 3,110 

1,440.8441 281,740 

18.506.906 11,326,669 



Increase 

in 
Pounds. 



22,500 
301.987 



78,769 

1,188,002 

873.619 

484,810 

2,276.478 

929,748 

1,159.104 

7.180.237 



NOVEMBER. 



1892. 



246,2^6 

598.4i8 
69.^75 

127,820 
2,154.103 
5,077,290 
4,435,400 
9.837.830 
5,623,857 

764,810 
3,520.189 



32.455- 



1891. 



235,130 



994,850 
1,499,070 
1,952,634 
1,560,963 
6,311,612 
1,712,074 

278,960 
1,650,957 



Increase 

in 
Pounds. 



246,256 

363,288 
69.475 

|! 

655.033 

3,124,6^6 
2.874.4,^7 
3.=;26,2i8 
3.91 1.783 
485,850 
,869.232 



i6,i96,25o|i6.259, 198 38 




Increase 

in 
Pounds. 



326,612 

70,734 
114,129 

345.680 
1,024,376 

3.883,090 
5.328.150 
5.S83.051 
4.349.321 
1,375,814 
5,365.416 

27.375.013 



Total Increase, 50,814.448 pounds. 



*No comparison taken. 



*Lake Charles is a large Rice Milling point;, shipments in. not out. 



OPELOUSAS. 

No. Pounds. 

Increase ot January, 1893, over January, 1892 2,537,620 

Increase of February, 1893, over February, 1892 1.558,770 

SUNSET. 

Increase of January, 1893, over January, 1892 779451 

Increase of February, 1893, over February, 1892 333,286 

BROUSSARD. 

Increase of January, 1893, over January, 1892 103,150 

Total shipment 108,000 

ABBEVILLE. 

Increase of January, 1893, over January, 1892 1,926,930 

Increase of February, 1893, over February, 1892 271,458 

MORGAN CITY. 

Increase of January, 1893, over January, 1892 129,685 

Increase of February, 1893, over February, 1892 17,205 

HOUMA. 

Increase of January, 1893, over January, 1892 155,079 

Increase of February, 1893, over February, 1892 8,557 

OPELOUSAS. 

Increase of December, 1892, over December, 1891 6,158,262 

SUNSET. 

Increase of December, 1892, over December, 1891 875,190 

WASHINGTON. 

Increase of December, 1892, over December, 1891 887,281 

Total shipment 891,461 

MORGAN CITY. 

Increase of December, 1892, over December, 1891 2,164,575 

Louisiana Western Railroad stations having no agents show an increase in 
December, 1892, of 5,365,416 pounds, on total shipment of 6,420,418 pounds. 



30 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

NAMES OF RICE PLANTERS. 

Post Office. No. Acres. 

Richards Mcrmenteau 150 

V. A. Mignaud " 300 

S. L. Peck " 200 

Gary & Bibbins " 350 

Leon Viterbo tS: Bio Jennings 750 

A. D. McFarlain " ' 1,080 

H. Gillert " 1,500 

L. L. Morse " 200 

G. H. Morse " 3^0 

H . Kistner " 400 

M. T. Smedly " 70 

James Maund " 50 

F. B. Cutting " 400 

S. P. More " 400 

I. W. Sockrider " 75 

H. L. and C. C. Gary " 150 

John Watt " . 300 

Wm. H. Harris " 200 

H.T.Miller " 50 

W. H. Simmons " 75 

Maurice Brien " 100 

G. L. Shaw " 100 

L. R. Hunter Welsh 100 

A. P. Hewett.. " 105 

F. M. Sherfy " 

Verritt " 300 

G. M. Field " '100 

James Hewitt Esterly 100 

S. A. Hombergen " 50 

Wm. Funk " 100 

I. E. Hall Lake Arthur 520 

J. B. Sharpe " 160 

A.M.Arthur " 500 

G. A. Lowry " 350 

Willins & Pinney • " • 750 

John Bradbury " 160 

Geo. M. Funk Jennings 50 

Willis A. Wood " 200 

MINERALS. 

Southwestern Louisiana has not been favored with a geologi- 
cal survey; surface indications are rich. Salt crops out at Petit 
Anse; rock salt, the purest in the world, has been found. The 
island is one immense block of crystalized chloride of sodium. 
A mine has been worked for many years, a train load a day leaves 
the rich mine (for the Southern Pacific is there) and it has made 
its owner, Mr. Avery, a millionaire. The mine is being worked 
on the second level, 180 feet below the surface, and borings have 
been made to the depth of 800 feet through pure rock salt, reveal- 
ing at least twenty millions of tons. Sulphur has been found 
near Lake Charles in large quantities. At Sulphur Mine Station on 
the Southern Pacific Railroad millions of dollars have been 



ON LINE Ol' TIIK SOU I'll F.RN FACIFIC. 3 1 

expended in sinking shafts and borings that have resulted in find- 
ing immense beds of pure sulphur, petroleum and other oils. 
There are grave difificulties yet to overcome to make this mine 
available, but as the Standard Oil Co. and others are on the 
ground, sooner or later they will succeed. 

The salt mine is beautifully located on an island in an open 
prairie country with considerable timber, only lo miles from New 
Iberia with which it is connected by rail; only a few miles from 
Orange Island, the home of the famous comedian, Joseph Jefferson. 



Healtfifulness. — If the same care was exercised in Louisiana 
to keep the system in order as in the Northern States, the average 
health of the family would be much better here than there. 
There is very little malaria in the prairie region of Southwestern 
Louisiana, and that is easily managed by ordinary care. 

Topography, Etc. — Along the entire Gulf coast, and from 
thirty to seventy miles northward, it is prairie, intersected by 
rivers and interspersed with picturesque lakes and woodland. 
North of the prairie is a vast forest of yellow pine, oak, hickory, 
beech, gum, magnolia, etc., of great value for lumber. The 
surface is quite rolling near the streams, but more remote rises 
into slightly undulating table lands. 

Roads. — These are easily and quickly made with clay that 
packs well and is easily handled, fall, winter or spring; can be 
made first class for fifty to seventy-five dollars a mile. Calcasieu 
Parish has a large fund for road purposes and is letting contracts 
for grading and bridging wherever right of way has been 
obtained. The old custom of forty feet wide is passing away with 
long-horned stock and sixty feet is the coming fashion. 

Other parishes are adopting modern methods of road work, 
one man to oversee and graders and teams to be kept at it all the 
season. 

Water. — We have an abundant supply, fifty-five inches annual 
rainfall, divided quite evenly among the months of the year as 
follows: 

Average for seventeen years. — January, four and nine-tenths; 
February, four and seven-eights; March, four and six-tenths; 
April, five and sixth-tenths; May, four and eight-tenths; June, 
three and five-tenths; July, three and nine-tenths; August, two 



32 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

and one-tenth; September, four and four-tenths; October, four and 
four-tenths; November, four and eight-tenths; December, five and 
two-tenths; average yearly fifty-two and four-tenths inches. 

A small cistern costing twenty to twenty-five dollars will keep 
a good family supply of the sweetest, purest water always cool 
enough and always handy. Well water in abundance at fifteen to 
twenty-five feet, through a clay soil, generally soft, and about at 
the best temperature for drinking safely summer or winter, 6o° to 
65 '^ Fahrenheit. 

For people living near rice fields the cistern is perfectly safe 
and to be recommended. We have rivers and lakes with an un- 
limited supply of good water so much needed for all growing 
crops. Hundreds of engines and pumps are lifting the water 
twenty to thirty feet high into flumes which carry it for miles to 
be used over thousands of acres of growing rice and by and by 
over our fields of sugar cane; fifteen to twenty-five tons per acre 
without irrigation. What yields will be made when an abundant 
supply of water is given during the dryest time — no more short 
joints in our canes. There are times in every season when irriga- 
tion would pay. Who will put in a system of water works first, 
bringing water not from rocks — there is not a rock or stone 
in the country — but from springs, lakes and rivers of water? 
This is a good opportunity for a paying investment. 

For house use, rain water is the best, but most of the farmers 
use well water, which is abundant and of good quality generally. 
The springs, creeks and rivers afford abundant stock water. 

Spanish Moss. — Grows along all the rivers and bayous of South- 
western Louisiana. In its green state its color is grey (not as bad 
as a green blackberry, which is red.) It is an aereophyte attached 
to trees, feeds upon air. It grows in great abundance, is easily 
gathered and cured. It blooms annually and reproduces itself 
when gathered from the trees. Can be gathered for thirty cents 
per hundred pounds. Cured and cleaned for one cent a pound 
and sells at three to four cents per pound in market. Is used like 
hair in upholstering and saddlery. No one need to starve near a 
moss field. It reproduces in six months; is said by some to be 
more profitable than a cotton field ready grown. 

Insects. — There are fewer flies than upon the Northern 
prairies, and about the same number of mosquitoes and harmful 
snakes. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 33 

Schools, Society and Politics. — Schools are not as numerous 
in the country as in the North, but there are good school laws, and 
as fast as the country settles schools can be secured. There are 
many Northern people in Southwestern Louisiana, and more are 
coming every day. The native population are kind and friendly. 

Property is safe. There are fewer locks and keys in the rural 
districts than in any country of equal extent in America. You 
can vote as you please and every vote will be fairly counted. 

THE GRASSES OF SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA. 
S. L. Gary, Esq. 

Dear Sir: — Of all the kings of the earth, there is no doubt 
but King Grass leads them all, grass being the foundation of all 
agricultural prosperity. Acknowledging this to be a fact, let us 
see how this will apply to Southwestern Louisiana. Grass appears 
to be indigenous to this section, for upwards of thirty different 
varieties grow spontaneously, without planting or cultivating, in- 
cluding Bermuda, Japan, White and Burr Clovers, Gazon or Carpet 
Grass, Blue Joint, Wild Oat Grass, Wild Alfalfa and shade grass. 
Some of these grasses remain green all the year 'round. These 
grasses if cut in the proper season, during the months of July and 
August, make a superior hay, which sells readily at prices varying 
from ^5 to S8 per ton, free on board cars, there being a large 
demand for it in Western Texas and other points. Another source 
of profit, is to feed these grasses to cattle, sheep and other live 
stock. At the present time there are thousands of acres of this 
grass allowed to go to waste, growing from one to two tons per 
acre, simply for the want of more hands to make it into hay; or 
for the want of more improved stock to graze the same. The 
former must be left to those who want to find a home in a mild, 
healthy climate, where blizzards are unknown; the latter by im- 
porting young improved stock, either of cattle or sheep, as both 
will do equally as well. Cattle must be under one year old when 
brought here. Such cattle will not take the Southern fever. Tame 
grasses have not been grown much yet, but there is not any doubt, 
if planted in the proper season, such grasses can be grown success- 
fully. The often abused Johnson grass, with proper cultivation 
and care, may be made one of the most profitable grasses grown, 
it being natural to a warm climate, and may be made to yield 
from four to six tons per acre annually. There is a great demand 
for this hay in the mining sections of Mexico, at a good price. 

Yours truly, James Maund. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 35 

MACHINERY. 

WHAT MACHINERY HAS DONE FOR SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA. 

It has made it possible for a few men from the Northwest to 
capture the rice industry. It has enabled one man with a machine 
and four mules to do the work of thirty to forty men in harvest 
which lasts three months of the year. The 3,000 twine binding 
harvesters in use, represent for three months an unseen population 
of 100,000 men, who never strike, ask for no holidays, never 
hunger, thirst, or get tired. It gives to one man the productive 
capacity of thirty. A good machine is the laboring man's best 
friend. It at first displaces labor, educates, and gives the power 
to earn better wages. There is very little or no prejudice against 
machinery in Southwestern Louisiana. Threshing is done by the 
same machine (slightly modified) that is used for wheat North, 
using a traction engine of ten to twelve horse power, about 150 
in use. The large rice fields are supplied with pumps and 
engines. A pump of large capacity, driven by a fifty horse power 
engine, will flood successfully 300 to 500 acres, depending upon 
the season (wet or dry). The same engines for running thresh- 
ing machines are largely used for pumping on smaller fields. 
Plows, harrows, cutaways, rollers and pulverizers of most improved 
pattern are used. Plowing by steam is being done experiment- 
ally, it's true; but the nature of the soil, the lay of the land, and 
the enterprise of the people warrant success. 

A very large amount of machinery has been sold, and yet the 
aerents said collections are much better here than elsewhere. 

SAFE AND PROFITABLE INVESTMENTS. 

Southwest Louisiana offers a clear field. Few mortgages, and 
land titles very short direct from the Government. Besides, these 
lands are capable of earning more than ordinary lands, as they 
grow the most valuable crops — sugar and rice. All northern 
products are grown and mature earlier and later than the usual 
season, making them particularly valuable. For instance, Irish 
potatoes ripen in May, strawberries in February, grapes in July, 
dewberries in April, peaches in May, pears in July, oats in June, 
corn in July. The first thirty days of the market is worth more 
than all the rest of the year. We have the benefit of climate 
which costs nothing and adds ninety per cent, to values. At this 
time, March i, fruit trees are in full bloom, vegetables of most 
kinds at and near maturity; those things saved, are of immense 



36 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

value. The average date of last killing frosts for the past thirty 
years, for Louisiana, is March 5, and the nearer the coast the less 
the danger. Now, along the line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, 
we have passed the great danger line, while fifty to one hundred 
miles north, both fruit and vegetables have been killed. If our 
products are killed sometimes by late frosts, still we have earlier 
seeding than anywhere north of us, as we are only liable to same 
freezes in March that Iowa and Illinois have in May, so that in 
every way Southwestern Louisiana is a safer place for investment 
than elsewhere. 

WHAT WE WERE TOLD BY "WE TOLD YOU SO," 
AND HOW IT CAME OUT. 

We were told that Southern people had no enterprise, lacked 
vigor, were indolent, and that we would become lazy and lose all 
our energy within two years. Our sufficient answer is to point to 
what we have done in the rice crop. We have outgrown the 
capacity of the rice mills and commission men of New Orleans, 
have raised to the full extent of the ability of the great Southern 
Pacific Railroad to handle. Commencing a few years ago with a 
shipment of 2,000,000 pounds, next season 4,000,000, then 8,000,- 
000, then 16,000,000, then 63,000,000, then 180,000,000 1891 and 
1892, and now 1892 and 1893 over 300,000,000 pounds, show that 
our Southern brethren have not been behind us in the race. 
We were told that we would be ostracised for opinion's sake. 
Answer, not so. We were told that we would be more subject 
to epidemics. Answer, not so. We were told that the climate 
was enervating. Answer, if so, how is it that all civilizations 
have sprung from warm countries. "Climates that grow oranges 
have grown all civilizations." Yellow fever was the great "scare 
crow." Answer, yellow fever does not originate in the Southern 
States, is controlled by quarantine, and is more easily cured than 
many Northern diseases that cannot be quarantined. Even the 
gentle grippe has more victims North than yellow fever in same 
length of time South. Diphtheria is more fatal, and does nearly 
all his deadly work north of the Ohio River. Diphtheria, a 
Northern disease, is more fatal than any Southern disease. Small- 
pox is mainly a Northern disease. We were told that roses had 
no fragrance, fruits no flavor. Both are untrue. We were told 
that the country was a marsh. Our prairies are not boggy. Our 
lands, some arc low, and some are high and rolling, wet and dry 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 37 

on nearly every quarter section, making each farm the more valu- 
able on account of this variety. The value of lands is enhanced 
by its varieties, its peculiarities. If I had the only farm that 
could grow any particular crop of general use, its value would be 
immense. 

LAKE CHARLES COLLEGE. 

Two years ago last October (1890) Lake Charles College 
opened its doors to furnish first-class training in high school 
studies and college courses, determined also to receive any who 
might come to it for a good common English education. 

It is not a sectarian or denominational institution, but one 
administered by a board of trustees seeking to make it Christian 
in practice. 

It has three departments, College, Preparatory and Academic, 
or English. This last department has three courses, English, 
Normal and Business, and is designed for those not intending to 
enter the college proper. These courses can be taken up at any 
point when the student is prepared. Taken from the beginning 
the business course lasts two years and is intended to prepare for 
business. The normal course, extending over three years, pro- 
vides for a thorough study of the fundamental English branches 
with a view to teaching. The English,- or academic course em- 
braces some of the English studies of the college, with French, 
German and the sciences. The preparatory courses (classical 
and scientific) occupy three years and are followed by the clas- 
sical and scientific courses in the college, covering four years. 

Free instruction is given two or three times a week in vocal 
music and free-hand drawing. 

To all studying for the Christian ministry, and to the children 
of all pastors of churches exclusively engaged in the work of the 
ministry, tititio)i is free. 

The endeavor of the college is by means of thoroughly trained 
teachers to give the best training according to the best methods, 
at the same time making character and conduct of the first im- 
portance. 

Such an institution is of priceless value to any community, and 
is always worth more than it costs. 

The college is located at Lake Charles, La., on the main line 
of the Southern Pacific Railroad, 217 miles west of New Orleans 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 39 

and 140 east of liouston, and at the southern terminus of the 
Kansas City, Watkins & Gulf Railway, and is thus easily accessi- 
ble from all parts of the State and Texas. 

It has spacious grounds of sixteen acres enclosed, and two 
college buildings, with the promise of a third. 

College Hall has sixteen rooms for recitations. The beginning 
of a library occupies one. The young ladies' cottage has sixteen 
large rooms and two smaller ones. These rooms are furnished 
all ready for use, excepting a few things brought by each student. 

Till the cottage for young gentlemen is erected, out of town 
students will be quartered in selected families, who have care for 
the students and report to the president. 

For catalogues or any information address 

Rev. Henkv L. Hubbell, D. D., 

President of the College. 

FEED FOR STOCK. 

THE PROBLEM OF CHEAP FEED FOR STOCK IN SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA. 

To this date feed for stock has been brought in from abroad, 
prices have been high and the drain very heavy. Rice is proving 
to be good and cheap feed for all kinds of stock. Rice can be 
grown here as cheaply, pound for pound, as any other grain, and 
for less money than it costs to import other feed stuffs from north 
of us. And now we arc growing a soft rice, Egyptian, or "bull" 
rice, yielding well with less water and much better to feed in its 
whole state. Corn is a paying crop — twenty to forty bushels per 
acre, according to cultivation and season. Sweet potatoes are 
well adapted to soil and climate here, yield well with little culti- 
vation, and grow equally well from vines planted as from slips. 
Everything, even to the dog and cat, eats sweet potatoes, but for 
the Northern market we must grow the Jersey potato, which seems 
to grow equally as well and is of as good quality or better, 
than that raised North. These can be laid down in Northern mar- 
kets at a cost of three dollars or less per barrel, selling now at 
four to five dollars. Rice straw is as good as other straw, or as 
common prairie hay. Prairie hay is now selling at from six to 
seven dollars a ton on track ready for shipment. We have a very 
large surplus of either straw or grass that is burned annually. It 
has a good feeding value, and this is the best place to feed it. It 



40 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

takes less feed to make pork or beef in a warm climate, and prices 
are generally better. The proper feeding of stock is essential to 
our greatest prosperity. The hulling or grinding of rice would 
add largely to its feeding value. There is a great variety of feed 
stuffs that can be grown here, and with good conveniences and 
care in feeding we can be entirely independent of the feed store, 
and can not only supply the home, but can have meats for the 
market. I am feeding rice and rice straw very satisfactorily. H. 
C. Drew and Pagent, of Lake Charles, will feed 400 tons of rice 
straw this season to 300 head of stock. They expect to grow 
1,200 acres of rice, partly to feed 600 to 90Q head of stock. Prof. 
S. A. Knapp fed, this year, forty acres of rice in the bundle to 
horses and mules while working, and satisfactorily, and expects 
to enlarge rice field and feeding next season. 

Successful farming is reduced to stock raising, even in the 
Northwest. There is no good reason why the South should not 
supply its own markets with all kinds of stock and all kinds of 
meats. Even cotton seed hulls are better meat-producing feed 
than corn fodder, timothy, red clover or potatoes. Cotton seed 
hulls cost at the mills two dollars per ton. Timothy and clover 
hay cost eighteen to twenty dollars per ton; rice bran, much better 
feed, as seen by the table, eight to ten dollars per ton. Cotton 
seed meal, with ten times the meat-producing power of timothy 
hay, can be bought at the same price in our markets, and warm 
weather is the best time to feed stock. The Southern winter along 
the Gulf coast is perfection for fattening stock. With shade, 
grass and good water in summer, and shelter from rains and 
Southern feed stuffs for winter, stock can be kept ready for the 
highest and best market with less expense, and, therefore, at better 
profit than at any place elsewhere that I know of. I append a 
table from the Times- Democrat, giving comparative feeding values: 

"The United States Department of Agriculture publishes the 
results of the very interesting experiments recently made by Pro- 
fessors E. H. Jenks and A. L. Winton, at New Haven, Conn., of 
the American feeding stuffs. No less than 3,267 feeding stuffs 
were carefully analyzed to see their food and fat-making value. 
Among the stuffs analyzed were of green fodder-cereals, grasses 
and legumes, silage, hay and dry coarse fodder, roots, bulbs, 
winter and other vegetables, grains and other seeds, mill products 
and waste material. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 4I 

"The following table giving the protein (or meat-making) and 
fat value of some of the leading cattle foods analyzed, will be 
interesting to farmers: protein. Fat. 

Per cent. Per cent. 

Ct)rn fodder 2.0 0.7 

Timothy 3.1 1.3 

Red clover 4.4 i.i 

Alfalfa 4.8 0.4 

Hay, red clover 12.3 3.3 

Potatoes 2.1 0.1 

Corn 10. 1 4.4 

Oats 1 1.8 5.0 

Cowpeas 20.8 1.4 

Linseed 2 1 .6 30.4 

Corn, cob 2.4 0.5 

Rye, bran 14.7 2.8 

Rice, bran 1 2. i 8.8 

Rice, hulls 3.6 0.7 

Cottonseed meal 42.3 13.1 

Cottonseed hulls ... 4.0 2.0 

Linseed meal 33.2 ' 3.0 

SOUTHERN HOMES. 

The following letter from Mr. W. J. Randolph, of Millersville, 
Louisiana, to a friend in Dakota, is quite interesting, and especially 
so to hundreds of families in the Northwest now looking southward 
for Southern homes. Millersville is only 8 miles north of Jen- 
nings, on the celebrated Calcasieu prairie, that is being settled 
almost exclusively by Northern people: 

Millersville, La., Dec. 15, 1887. 

Dear Brother Fassctt. — The Nezvs still comes to me, forwarded 
from Spottswood. Now facts are, I am not able to take all the 
news — I am abundantly able to take, but am not able to pay for 
them. If you are so interested in my knowing the capacity of 
the average Dakota newspaper man for expanding the naked 
truth, you better send the paper here, but for your own safety, 
and financial success, you better " stopher." I stayed in the banana 
belt too long to have dollars around loose. When I read of 30° 
below zero and no coal, I shudder and wonder if I really was ever 
there. We have had a few frosts, the grass is green and cattle 
and horses on the range are fat and sleek. I am writing in a room 
without fire and doors open. We don't fear a coal famine; we 
can go and get enough fuel to last a week in an hour's time, and 
it won't cost a cent. We live on as beautiful prairie as ever lay 
out of doors. Magnificent timber of all kinds on either side 
within a mile and a'half. Good fence lumber costs $'] per thou- 
sand feet, and health is as good or better than in Dakota. 
Abundance of wild fruit from March to August. Peaches, nee- 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 43 

tarines, apricots, figs, Japan persimmons are propagated from 
cuttings and come into bearing in two years. Pears begin to bear 
in from 3 to 5 years and this is the home of the best. These 
prairies produce grass to beat the world; will average more to the 
acre than ten acres in Dakota. There have been thousands of 
tons of hay shipped this fall' at prices that net more cash than a 
Dakota wheat crop. These are some of the things that strike a 
Dakota man favorably; could tell you some things not quite so 
pleasant, but nothing to compare to a straw fire. This country is 
filling up with Northern people, property is advancing in price 
every day, and I have the first Northern settler yet to see who 
wants to spend the winter in Michigan. Horace Greely said, 
" it is easier to raise a steer in Texas, than to raise a hen in Maine," 
and I am not sure but it is cheaper to raise a whole herd of cattle 
here than to pull one old cow around by the horns, hunting for 
water and fresh grass in Dakota. Do you hear me shout? 

You better stop and put in some more straw, and I will hitch 
up and take a buggy ride, just for fun, and think of you poor 
fellows up there, pressing your nose against the window glass 
wondering when the storm will let up, the weather moderate and 
the cars will come laden with coal. 

Nothing but extreme poverty drove me out of Dakota, and 
how I do thank the good Lord for one spell of poverty and that 
by contrasting this with Dakota, I can the more enjoy the glorious 
weather, the beauty of the landscape, etc. How we can laugh at 
the storm and the coal dealers and the straw pile; how we can lux- 
uriate on the sweet potato, rice, poultry, eggs, sugar and syrup, 
corn bread, beef at 5 cents per pound, etc., all of home production. 

Here, if we can't buy shoes, we can be independent and go 
bare-foot and never think of freezing. 

This is not for publication, and I am not booming the country. 
If I were, what a story I could tell. If the average Dakota 
newspaper man was down here and should give rein to his 
imagination as at home, he would be looking for the Great White 
Throne and the River of Life, the Streets of Gold and the Pearly 
Gates. It would be necessary to swathe him in a suit of Dakota 
winter clothes to keep him from bursting and to put imported 
ice on his head to remind him of home and enable him to call in 
his ideas, take his bearings and find out where he really was. If 
you don't believe it come down and try it. 

Yours, W. J. Randolph. 



44 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

JOSEPH JEFFERSON'S ORANGE ISLAND, 

NEAR NEW IBERIA, LA. 

S. L. Gary, Esq., New Iberia, La., February 26, 1888. 

Dear Sir: — Yours of November 22d was received some time 
since, but not having had the time to answer it has been deferred 
until now. Your question regarding the depth of the water ways 
in this country I will answer to the best of my knowledge. I 
have not been sailoring on the coast for several years, and storms 
and the tides may have affected the channels more or less since I 
quit sailoring. I will begin at Calcasieu River. The channel at 
that bar was from three to six feet; since then it has been dredged, 
and I do not know the depth now. Mermenteau River bar is 
from two and a half to five feet, mean tide four feet. Following 
the coast eastwardly we come to the southwest pass of Vermillion 
Bay; outside in the gulf there is twelve feet, inside in the bay 
there is eight feet, very low tide six feet. Eastwardly again we 
come to Cote Blanche Bay, where there is eight to nine feet. 
Eastwardly again is Bayou Sale Bay, with from five to seven feet 
of water. Eastwardly again is Morrison's cut-off, which is an 
outlet into Atchafalia Bay, with a depth of eight to ten feet. 
Atchafalia Bay has a depth of seven to nine feet. We come next 
to Atchafalia River, which leads direct to Morgan Cit3^ with 
plenty of water. From the Atchafalia River through the Atcha- 
falia Bay to the Gulf is a dredged channel made by the Morgan 
steamship line. 

While speaking of channels and outlets from this part of the 
country to the Gulf, let me call your attention to one thing: The 
whole country from Calcasieu to Vermillion Bay is interspersed 
with lakes and bayous, upon which lie a great deal of fine, culti- 
vable lands (in fact, with a little drainage all can be cultivated). 
Now, if the Messrs. Watkins & Co. had some one who knew the 
country as I do, he could cut a canal from the Calcasieu River to 
Vermillion Bay in a very short time, thus opening those fertile 
lands to immigration and giving a way for those already there for 
shipping their produce. As three-fourths of the proposed canal 
is already opened by natural lakes and bayous, you see it would 
only require dredging from one to another until we arrive at Ver- 
million Bay, where it is open to Morgan City. There are a great 
many farmers and others who live too far from a railroad anxious 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 45 

to have this canal made, giving them a chance to get their produce 
to market. 

From circulars received from you I infer you are trying to 
have people emigrate to this country, and you praise it in the 
highest terms, to which I not only agree, but can add to. Here I 
was born, raised and have had my being for more than fifty-five 
years (excepting a visit to Cuba and a short stay in South America 
and Mexico), yet I feel as young and agile as a boy — seldom or 
never sick — to which hundreds of others can testify, which cer- 
tainly proves the healthfulness of the country. I see hundreds 
of people here from different parts of the North, and they unani- 
mously say they suffered more from heat in the North than here- 
How can it be otherwise when we have during the whole summer 
a never-ceasing breeze from the Gulf, which, laden as it always is 
with the fragrance of many flowers, makes this place a fit abode 
for the gods. Now, at this season, the 28th of February, our gar- 
dens are filled with the finest vegetables. We have, and have 
had during the winter, cauliflower, cabbage, beets, turnips, celery, 
green peas and many other things, all grown in our open gardens. 
We grow most of the fruits of the tropics and nearly all of those 
of the more northern States. In fact, this is the country of coun- 
tries, and all it wants is men to develop its resources. 

I fear I have already written you too lengthy; but in closing I 
will say, if I can be of an}^ service to you in any way I will with 
pleasure, and should you ever come to these parts make it con- 
venient to give me a call. I am managing the stock farm of Mr. 
Joseph Jefferson. I will gladly show you the country and tell 
you all I know, or you can refer any of your friends to me. In 
the mean time I would like to hear of you and how you are suc- 
ceeding regarding this country. I am with pleasure, 

Yours respectfully, 

Joseph Landry. 

A REMARKABLE FACT. 

Providentially the Southern Pacific holds the key to the situa- 
tion as regards the sugar, rice and hay industries of the State. 
Only five years since the Carolinas raised the rice of the United 
States. At that time the delta of the Mississippi raised the rice 
of Louisiana. All done by colored labor. 

At that time the Southern Pacific Railroad Company put an 
agent in the field to attract emigration to the prairies of South- 



46 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

west Louisiana. We induced the men of the Northwest to come, 
and these men brought with them the improved farm machinery 
with which they cultivated their lands and made a living — "labor- 
saving machinery." 

There were vast quantities of grass rotting annually. The 
mower, stacker, gatherer and hay press were brought into use, 
and to-day thousands of tons find their way over the Southern 
Pacific to Texas and Mexico. 

These men saw the rice crop secured with a hook or sickle, for 
a harvester. They put a twine-binding harvester into the field, and 
this season 1,500 machines, capable of harvesting ten to fifteen 
thousand acres per day, are in the rice fields of Southwest Louisi- 
ana. The industry is revolutionized by machinery handled by 
white men; so that the great rice crop which five years ago was 
grown by the Carolinas and the Mississippi Delta, is now grown 
in Southwest Louisana. 

And now the outlook is the same for the great sugar industry. 
The tendency is to leave the low bottoms, subject more or less to 
overflow, and take the higher lands that are much easier to culti- 
vate and handle. The first move of importance was made last 
season, when the agent of the company took samples of prairie- 
grown cane to Audubon Park for analysis, and Professor Stubbs 
announced that these samples contained 20 to 25 per cent, above 
the average Louisiana cane in sugar, or from 14.4 to 16.4 per cent, 
sucrose. Then thousands of circulars telling these facts were 
printed by the company and circulated through the Northwest. 

The next great step is the erection of a diffusion sugar house 
at Lake Charles, by a student of Prof. Stubbs, after learning these 
facts. It is proven that cane grows as well on the prairies as on 
the bottoms, and is sweeter, lands are cheaper, and white men and 
machinery will make this industry as successful as they do the 
rice. And the Southern Pacific Company feel the vast import- 
ance and value of these industries to the whole country; having 
inaugurated this great change, involving questions of national im- 
portance, will endeavor to carry it forward to complete success. 

The United States supplies of sugar and rice are involved in this 
experiment, and all indications point to success. 

There is enough good prairie land along the line of the South- 
ern Pacific Railroad in Louisiana to furnish hay to the State, and 
sugar and rice for the United States. 



ON LINE OF THK SOUTHERN TACIFIC. 47 

The price of undeveloped land is $5 to jSiO per acre; improved 
land, SiO to $25. 

Will you come and help solve the problem, and develop this 
new and most valuable country, with the assurance of large profits 
and of unusually favorable general conditions? 

Successful farming is reduced to stock-raising even in the 
Northwest. Grass is the best form, and warm weather the best 
time in which to feed stock. " Go South, young man, go South." 
And when you go south, GO SOUTH! 

PALMETTO. 

This plant abounds in all of the lowlands of Southwestern 
Louisiana. Here is what the Baltimore Record has to say of its 
value: 

THE PALMETTO FOR TANNING PURPOSES. 

Editor Mamifactiircrs Record: Savannah, Ga., January 9. 

No part oi the United States has as much valuable raw 
material, which is either neglected or unknown, as the Southern 
States. Much has been written about the saw palmetto, its value 
as a fibre, and the immense quantity growing wild has been fully 
discussed, but little has been said about its qualities as tanning 
material, which are of much importance and of great value. 

Leather tanned with palmetto is fully as bright and durable as 
oak-tanned leather. The hide treated with palmetto will gain as 
much in weight as if tanned with oak, chestnut or hemlock bark. 

My own analysis and that of other chemists show the palmetto 
contains 11 to 12 per cent, of tannic acid. This compares favor- 
ably with hemlock, which contains about 8 per cent., and chestnut 
bark, which contains 10 to 11 per cent. Oak, the best known tan- 
ning material, has only 17 to 18 per cent, of acid. 

While spent oak, hemlock or chestnut bark is worthless, the 
refuse of the palmetto after the tannin has been extracted is 
worth much more than the cost of the green raw material. 

This refuse consists of about 800 pounds of fibre to the ton, 
and can be used for paper stock, plastering hair, bedding and 
upholstering material, cordage, oakum, felt, or in lieu of jute for 
cotton bagging. The commercial value of these fibre products 
will vary from $20 to $100 per ton, and with an unlimited demand. 

It is generally conceded that it will take fifteen pounds of oak 
bark to tan one pound of hide into leather. The average cost of 







^u -• 









/>>, 









•1 Jt)" 



t^aM 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 49 

oak bark will be more than $20 per ton, but at this price it will 
take fifteen cents' worth to produce one pound of leather. Now 
this cost is entirely saved if palmetto is used, as the refuse from 
palmetto is worth much more than the cost of the green plant. 

A ton of palmetto, green or partly dried, can be delivered in 
Savannah for $5 and even less, and it has tannic acid enough to 
tan 100 pounds of flint hides. The refuse of 800 pounds of fibre 
will have a value of one to five cents per pound, netting enough 
to pay for the raw material and all manufacturing expenses, and 
even leaving a small margin of profit regardless of the tannin. 

While tanners using bark have only a few months to purchase 
their supply, and are consequently compelled to have much of 
their capital dormant, the tanner using palmetto can buy his sup- 
ply from day to day, as he needs it, any month in the year. 

Savannah exports annually 50,000 bales of hides, weighing 500 
to 600 pounds each. Our present quotations are five and a half 
cents per pound for flint hides, three cents for salted hides and 
two cents for green hides. Many of these come back here as 
leather, for which we pay from twenty-five to forty cents per pound. 

With raw hides costing so little, a tanning material which 
practically costs nothing, a climate where tanning can be carried 
on the year round, an immense territory and good home markets, 
where leather can be sold at good prices, with an abundance of 
common labor which can be secured at low wages, there are few 
places which offer a more inviting field for tanners than Savan- 
nah. Several tanneries now operating in this vicinity have used 
palmetto with excellent results, so that it is not a theory, but an 
accomplished fact, as the quality of the leather and financial 
results have proved entirely satisfactory C. B. Warrand. 

COTTON. 

Cotton is raised to some extent in Southwestern Louisiana, but 
is not a favorite crop, and of late years, owing to low prices, did 
not pay, but at present high prices for seed and lint will pay 
fairly well. 

The Northern immigrant does not take kindly to cotton grow- 
ing; perhaps he may when cotton picking is done by machinery. 
It undoubtedly pays better than wheat, oats or corn raising in the 
North. The yield is a half-bale per acre planted in March, culti- 
vated like corn, picked in September, October and November, 
costing to grow same as corn until harvesting, which costs fifty 



50 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

cents to one dollar per lOO lbs. The seed is becoming more 
valuable year by year, is the best feed for stock and the best 
fertilizer known. 

One thousand pounds of seed with each 500 pounds of lint 
cotton seed is worth $\2 to iS20 a ton. Its uses are numerous; 
competes with oleo. for supremacy in making good dairy butter. 

TIMBER. 

Large bodies of excellent timber occupy fully one half of 
southwest Louisiana. The varieties are almost endless. The 
quality the very best. Hard pine, cypress, oak, ash, gum and 
hickory are leading. A very large business in lumber and shingles 
is done the year round. Men from Michigan are leading. The 
timber is well located along the rivers, lakes and bayous, is 
accessible, and lumbering on a large scale goes on summer and 
winter. 

LAKE CHARLES. 

BY PROF. S. A. KNAPP. 

On the Calcasieu River is the metropolis of Southwestern 
Louisiana and destined to be the great central city between New 
Orleans and Houston, Texas, a distance of 360 miles. Look at 
facts: 

1. It has an admirable location on one of the most beautiful 
lakes in America and upon a river broad, deep and navigable at 
all times of the year. 

Lake Charles (the lake) is two miles wide by two and one- 
half miles long and through it flows the Calcasieu river. The 
waters of the lake are clear and its banks are bold, except on the 
north and southwest, where giant semi-tropical forests do battle 
with the waves. The Calcasieu River, one thousand feet broad 
and sixty feet deep, flows from the northeast till within one- 
fourth of a mile of the lake, where it makes a graceful curve to 
the west and enters the lake on the western shore. The city of 
Lake Charles extends from the river upon the north along the 
eastern shore of the lake to the river upon the south. For beauty 
of location Lake Charles surpasses every city upon the Gulf 
coast. 

2. It is upon the Southern Pacific Railroad, 218 miles west of 
New Orleans. The Calcasieu, Vernon & Shreveport Railroad, 
now under construction, will give an air line to Kansas City. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN I'ACIFIC. 5I 

3. It is a city of 7000 inhabitants, manufactures 650,000 feet of 
lumber, 320,000 shin<^les daily; has three banks; four newspapers; 
nine sawmills; one suj^ar refinery; the largest rice mill in America; 
car shops; water works; street railways; electric lights, etc. It 
is increasing in population at the rate of two thousand per year. 

4. Appropriation has been made to improve the harbor at 
the mouth of the Calcasieu, which will give Lake Charles one of 
the best harbors on the Gulf of Mexico. 

5. It is positively the best location in the South to establish 
the following lines of manufacture: 

First, furniture; second, wagons; third, chairs; fourth, agri- 
cultural implements; fifth, cotton or woolen factories; sixth, 
iron works, engine building, etc.; seventh, it is a place where 
investments pay; eighth, it is one of the best winter resorts on 
the Gulf, and has many Northern visitors every season. 

6. Lake Charles is essentially a Northern city, wide awake, 
progressive and modern. 

7. Much of the growth of Lake Charles is due to the advan- 
tages afforded by the Southern Pacific Railroad and its superior 
service in passenger and freight trafific. • 

WELSH, LA. 

S. L. Cary, Esq. 

Dear Sir: — " In the bend of the bayou she sits snugly 
ensconsed." This is the first line of an article from the pen of a 
well-known writer, and can be most fully appreciated by the 
stranger as he approaches the town from the north or northeast. 
It is a growing town of about 350 inhabitants, and was incorporated 
under the laws of the State. Situated on the Southern Pacific 
Railroad in Calcasieu Parish, 195 miles west of New Orleans, no 
east of Houston, and twenty-three miles east of Lake Charles, the 
parish seat. Located in the forks of two lovely wooded streams 
which afford excellent drainage, and in the center of large timber 
areas and rich prairies extending many miles in each direction, it 
is certainly an ideal site, considered both from commercial and 
picturesque points of view. From a simple railway station with 
two small stores and a blacksmith shop. Northern emigration has 
developed in four years, three large dry goods and grocery stores, 
one hardware and furniture store, two drug stores, one restaurant, 
a meat market, a livery and feed stable, two neat little churches, 
(Methodist and Congregational) and a public school building of 



52 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

modern design, thirty by sixty feet, two stories high. And all 
this has come about with rice as the only money- making farm 
crop. What it will be when sugar cane, fruit and live stock have 
been given the same attention, is a matter of conjecture. Men of 
experience and close observation do not hesitate to predict for 
the town and country a very bright future. Along both sides of 
the larger bayou that runs past the town on toward the Gulf is a 
strip of magnificent hardwood timber, including several of the 
oaks, hickory, white holly, cypress, sweet gum, and others. From 
the church belfry, lines of timber can be seen in the east, the 
north, and the west, but in no case are they less than twelve miles 
distant, the prairie like a grand panorama spreading out before 
you. These prairies that in early spring time are covered with 
lovely wild flowers, and later with luxuriant waving grass, former- 
ly supported large herds of horses and cattle. But as the land 
has settled up and the farmer fenced in the best grazing lands, and 
on them planted rice, the stock industry has grown less and less 
each year. Many high-grade and thoroughbred short-horn cattle 
have been brought in by Northern settlers. Most of them live, 
and of these, many take well to their new pastures, while others 
do not seem to thrive. The Galloways and polled Angus do the 
best of all the noted beef cattle brought here. They will be fat 
in a pasture of native grasses, where on the same feed a short-horn 
will be poor. There is very little attention given on the part of 
farmers, at present, to improving their beef cattle, but there is the 
most urgent need for better milch stock. Thoroughbred Hol- 
steins or Jerseys are just as easily acclimated as any cattle, and 
are sure of producing a handsome revenue for their owners. The 
time is coming when hogs will be raised here in considerable 
numbers, but it is not advisable, at present, for a man going on to 
a new place to bring hogs with him. This is a good place for 
chickens. Either Egyptian or red rice is a cheap and excellent 
feed. With a small amount of this feed and a sufficient grass range, 
hens will lay the whole year, except a short time in midsummer. 
More liberal rations will fatten them nicely for market. The 
acreage in rice for the season of 1892 is at least fifty per cent, 
larger than tiie year before, and the yield much above an average. 
Some experiments this season have shown that $2.50 worth of 
fertilizer has aided in producing full crops on lands heretofore 
considered too high for rice. One man in this vicinity has just 
threshed over 2,000 barrels from 200 acres of such land. Corn is 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 53 

grown in a small way, mostly by Creole farmers for their own use. 
The average yield is about twenty bushels per acre. As most of 
the farming at present is done with oxen, farmers generally buy 
cotton seed, which is better and cheaper feed. Two small pieces 
of oats were sown near town last fall. The yield was twenty-two 
bushels per acre and the quality very good. The result, though 
not large, shows that, with proper management, much better can 
be done, and that every farmer can raise his own horse feed. The 
cultivation of sugar cane has been carried on in a small way for 
many years. To make syrup and a littl-e sugar for home use has 
long been thought to be the most that would ever be done in that 
line. On the i6th of November, 1892, the first car of cane was 
shipped from this station to the Calcasieu Sugar Co. Without 
doubt this marks the beginning of an industry that will add very 
largely to the wealth and prosperity of this section. In fruit rais- 
ing, little or nothing lias been done, except to supply the home 
table. One man, living within a half mile of the depot, has set 
out over five hundred trees, and will plant more each year, in- 
tending, eventually, to make it a special business. The thrift and 
vigor of the trees, the color and flavor of the fruits that are grown, 
is proof that the soil and climate favors horticulture in its highest 
forms. Most prominent in the large and growing list are figs, 
pears, peaches and plums. Of the latter, the Japanese varieties 
are very promising. They are larger in size and better flavored 
than many of the California plums that have retailed here at five 
cents apiece. Oranges are a success under proper conditions. 
Six miles south of town is an orchard that is now supplying the 
home market with excellent fruit. Keep an eye on the fruit in- 
dustry at Welsh. Yours truly, C. M. Field. 

JENNINGS, LA. 

Jennings received its name and location from the building of 
the Southern Pacific Railroad, its name from a builder of the 
road, Jennings McComb, and its location by virtue of a divide on 
the high rolling prairie, giving the town a high, dry and com- 
manding position on the largest prairie in the State. The first 
station agent was S. L. Cary, from Howard County, Iowa, who 
came to Jennings Feb. 7, 1883, and took the office April i. Jen- 
nings then consisted of four buildings, depot, section house, one 
dwelling house and store, owned by A. D. McFarlain. The prairie 
around in all directions was either United States or State land. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 55 

The station business was from $250 to $400 a month. This was the 
beginning of an immigration from the North and Northwest, 
amounting to fully 10,000 people at this time. Gary was station 
agent about four years, putting in all his spare time in advertising 
this country by sending letters, circulars and books to his 
Northern friends, and was so successful that the Southern Pacific 
Company promoted him to Northern Immigration Agent for the 
company, with headquarters at Manchester, Iowa. He has given 
full information, has accompanied all excursions, distributed mil- 
lions of circulars, maps and books, has seen all the prairie region 
taken by homeseekers, most of whom are from Iowa, giving the 
settlement the name of the " Iowa Colony," of which he is presi- 
dent. Jennings to-day has nearly 1,000 inhabitants, a freight and 
passenger business of $3,000 to $4,000 monthly. Will ship 1,000 
carloads of rice of 20,000 pounds each, 1892-93 (see table published 
herewith). Has one bank with $40,000 capital, with another 
organizing. A newspaper, graded high school, three churches, 
two sawmills (capacity 20,000 feet daily), planing and two shingle 
mills, feed mill, livery, two drug stores, two shoe stores, restau- 
rant, millinery, three groceries, three general stores, four hotels, 
and over two hundred buildings of all kinds. More attention has 
been paid to fruit growing here than elsewhere in Southwestern 
Louisiana, I0,000 pear trees and as many more divided among 
figs, peaches, plums, oranges, olives, persimmons, and many nut 
bearing trees, pecans, English walnuts, as well as berries and fine 
gardens. The city is headquarters for the Iowa Colony, being a 
Northern village on Southern soil. It puts on Northern styl^, 
and on its streets you can shake hands with people from every 
and any State north of Mason and Dixon's line, and they like to 
meet you, and are, if possible, more agreeably social since breath- 
ing Southern air. They seem to be on better terms with God and 
themselves since landing in this genial clime of easy conditions. 
The history of Jennings is the hi-story of Southwestern Louisiana. 
All its towns and cities have partaken of the same general thrift 
and spirit. There has been no boom, and we hope there will be 
none. The country is a marvel of success, and whatever our 
hands have touched has prospered. The assessed value of our 
Calcasieu Parish has risen from $1,000,000 to $6,000,000, and a 
large industry has been secured to this Southwestern Louisiana 
by the introduction of a twine-binding harvester to the rice fields, 
by an Iowa-Jennings farmer, Maurice Brj-ne. The health of the 



56 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

place is remarkable, as a visit to our beautiful cemetery will show. 
We are a church-going people, enterprising, wide awake, progress- 
ive. Our wants are capital, a rice mill, sugar mill, cannery, wagon 
factory, furniture factory, brick-maker, sash, blind and door factory. 
Will furnish ample grounds for a college or university, and are al- 
ways in the market for anything for the good of the city or country. 

LAKE ARTHUR, LA. 

The Lake Arthur region deserves special mention. Four years 
ago it was only a wide prairie, covered with stock, not a single 
Northern man south of Jennings. To-day the town has inhabitants 
enough to incorporate and will do so this winter. It has good 
schools and churches, will build a high school building at once, 
has good business houses, a live newspaper and the best hotel in 
Southwestern Louisiana. A railroad is all they need to make it 
a splendid town, and their prospects for that are very encour- 
aging. Large farms have been opened up all along the lake, clear 
to Bayou Lacacine, and for miles north and west large orchards 
of pears, plums and peaches have been planted and are doing 
extremely well. Beautiful homes, surrounded with all kinds of 
fruit trees and shrubbery, that would take from eight to ten years 
to build up in the North, now cover the prairie, the effort of only 
from three to four years. This year there have been raised within 
a radius of ten miles from the lake, over 10,000 acres of rice, 
averaging twelve barrels to the acre. Sugar cane is being culti- 
vated to a considerable extent. Corn, Irish and sweet potatoes 
do well. Land is selling at from $7 to $10 per acre. Parties 
visiting the South should not return without going to Lake Arthur 
and looking over this beautiful section. Yours truly, 

E. L. Lee, Lake Arthur, La, 

SHELL BEACH, LA. 

S. L. Gary, Esq. 

Dear Sir: — For answer to your kind favor would state that to 
any party having work-stock we will build a house and pasture. 
Any amount of land required will be furnished. There are about 
25,000 acres to pick from. The seed required will be advanced, 
same to be returned after harvest. A complete pumping outfit 
will be rented at cost for the purpose of irrigating the rice field. 
Wc pay our share of threshing and furnish our share of sacks. 
We ask as our share one-fourth of the total crop. 

Yours truly, J. P. Gueydan & Son. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 57 

ACADIA PARISH, LA. 

SOME FACTS ABOUT ACADIA PARISH, THE CENTER OF THE GREAT RICE-RAISING 

DISTRICT OF LOUISIANA, AND ITS BUSTLING, BUSY AND GROWING CAPITAL, 

CROWLEY, THE TOWN THAT IS KNOWN ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES 

AS THE "queen CITY OF SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA." IT HAS 

EARNED THIS DISTINCTION AND WILL KEEP IT. 

Seldom in the history of any State outside of a mining district 
has a town had such a rapid, substantial and sure growth as this 
town has experienced. Seldom in the history of any agricultural 
section has a country or parish made such rapid strides as Acadia 
Parish in the last five years. Seldom in the history of any coun- 
try has its residents found themselves so suddenly and surely 
lifted from poverty to affluence as have the people of Acadia 
Parish and the residents of Crowley, La. 

To one who has not marked its progress, step by step, the 
results of five years of labor by its founders, W. W. Duson & Bro., 
in developing this country and building up this town seems almost 
beyond belief. Eight years ago the parish of Acadia had never 
been heard of, having been created from the undeveloped portion 
of St. Landry Parish in October, 1886, and not until two or three 
years after did its founders, W. W. and C. C. Duson, conceive the 
idea of building what is the present city of Crowley. How well 
they have succeeded is shown by the following facts: 

Previous to the founding of the new parish this section of the 
country was held in very poor repute. Lands were of no value — 
from twelve and one-half cents to one dollar per acre — and money 
was almost an unknown quantity, groceries and supplies being 
purchased by cypress pieux, Creole ponies, etc. 

The native settlers here lived in small houses built from logs 
or lumber split from the trees by their own hands, and a stove or 
window in the house was never heard of. A man that owned 500 
acres of land was considered to be worth S250. 

But a wonderful change has taken place in five years, and a 
still more wonderful transformation will be seen in the next five 
years to come. These same people whom you saw living in 
houses with mud chimneys and board shutters for windows, many 
of them, to-day have modern residences, productive farms under 
a high state of cultivation and supplied with all modern improved 
machinery; ride in their carriages, have money in the bank, and 
yearly dispose of from one to four and five thousand dollars' 
worth of products from their farms. 



58 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

You ask; What has brought about this cliangc, and what is it 
that will enhance the possessions of these people and make them 
the envy of a continent in the next five years? What is it that 
has raised the value of lands in and around Crowley from twelve 
and one-half cents to fifteen and twenty dollars per acre? We 
answer, the culture of rice. And why should the farmer of Acadia 
Parish who raises rice receive so much larger returns for his labor 
than the farmer of Dakota who raises wheat and oats? The 
question is answered, by the law of supply and demand. 

Why are diamonds so valuable? Because they are scarce and 
are produced in a very limited section of country. Rice also can 
only be produced in a limited area of the United States. Few 
diamond fields and few rice fields. The demand for this cereal 
is constantly on the increase, and will be for the next fifty years. 
Compared to wheat, oats, barley, beans, potatoes, meat, or any 
other staple article of food, rice at the present price is 33^ per 
cent, cheaper than any other food, and as its value as an article of 
food becomes known, so will its consumption and its demand 
increase. 

But never, until the Gulf stream changes its course and runs 
up the Mississippi river, will the extent of country in which it can 
be raised be extended, so we need never fear an overproduction 
of this cereal. 

Facts taken from the most carefully compiled statistics bear 
us out in saying that if every acre of land in the United States 
that will produce rice was planted with this cereal and an average 
crop raised and milled, with fair milling and shipping expenses 
added, and then the product placed on the markets of the United 
States on a basis of three dollars per barrel for rough rice, it 
would not be as much as we consume; in other words, the United 
States can never supply its own demands. 

Now, when the consumption of this article doubles, does it not 
stand to reason that if the supply is not increased the article 
itself must increase in value, and at a corresponding rate the lands 
that produce the rice will be enhanced in value? Hence we say 
that Acadia's lands are bound to keep increasing in value, and the 
man who buys these lands at from seven to twenty dollars per 
acre, their present price, has bought a gold mine that he knows 
not the value of. 

If lands in the State of Illinois that produce fifteen bushels of 
wheat per acre, valued at Si. 00 per bushel, are worth S45 per acre, 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 5Q 

they have produced 33 Vj per cent, of tlieir vahic. Then the 
lands of Acadia Parish that produce fifty dollars' worth of rice 
per acre are worth, according to the same figures, Si 50 per acre, 
instead of from seven to twenty; but this is the difference in 
farming in Acadia Parish and some of the Middle and Northern 
States. 

In the State of Ohio they raise wheat on lands that are worth 
from fifty to sixty dollars per acre, and get from twelve to fifteen 
dollars' worth of wheat, while we in Acadia raise rice on lands 
that are worth from twelve to fifteen dollars, and get from fifty 
to sixty dollars' worth of rice. With one-fourth of the capital 
invested we get four times the returns. While they are frozen up 
six months in the year, eating up what they earned the other six 
months, we work the whole year round with no loss of time, under 
the most genial skies and balmy climate known to man. It is a 
fact that lands are worth whatever they will pay a reasonable rate 
of interest on after the expenses of raising the crop is taken off. 

The American people are not slow to take advantage of a good 
thing when they see it; neither are they slow in catching the 
spirit of the times, and it has just dawned upon them that in these 
rice lands of Southwest Louisiana lies the greatest bojianza in the 
way of agricultural lands on the American continent to-day. In 
no section of the United States can a man buy land and engage 
in farming with so small an outlay and reap such large and sure 
returns as here. In no section of the United States can the capi- 
talist find so promising a field for the investment of his money 
as here. 

Men of capital and energy are needed to develop the wonder- 
ful resources and industries of this country. Men with business 
experience and energy are needed to carry out the good work 
already begun. Factories and manufacturing establishments are 
wanted to work up the raw material that is produced in abundance 
here and will some day prove a mine of wealth to the party estab- 
lishing such industries ; and, above all, farmers with brains, 
muscle and money are needed to buy up and till our vacant lands, 
and they are coming, too. Realizing that the earlier they come, 
the better chances they will have for investments, they are coming 
from the North, the P^ast, the West — coming faster than they ever 
poured into any agricultural section before. 

As an index of how rapidly this country is filling up it is only 
necessary to say that five }'ears ago there was hardly a farm 



60 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

fenced in, in the parish. In the year 1889 Crowley shipped 12,000 
barrels of rough rice, at an average value of three dollars per 
barrel, making $36,000. Of the year 1890 we are unable to fur- 
nish the exact amount, but it was more than doubled. In 1891 
Crowley shipped 80,000 barrels of rice, or 420 carloads, valued at 
$240,000. For the first four months of the shipping year of 1892 
Crowley's shipments of rice were as follows: September, 4,999 
barrels; October, 36,925; November, 60,793; December, 53,859. 
Total number of barrels shipped to January i, 1893, 156,576, or 
740 cars. A conservative estimate places the balance of this 
year's crop still on hand and ready to be shipped at 100,000 bar- 
rels, making a grand total of 1,240 cars, or 256,576 barrels. At 
an average of three dollars per barrel this would give the enor- 
mous sum of $769,728; and this from Crowley alone, which five 
years ago was an unbroken prairie. The town of Rayne, six 
miles east, has shipped about half as much. This wonderful 
increase in the rice industry is fully equaled by every other 
branch of business. 

The following careful and liberal estimate will show some- 
thing of the profits to be derived from rice culture: 

Take 160 acres of land, at say $15 $2,400 

House and stable 500 

. 55 barrels of rice seed at $3 165 

A hired man, say six months, at $20 120 

Two spans of mules and harness at $275 550 

Machinery and wagon, say, 250 

Feed for team 125 

Board for hired man, 6 months 72 

Fencing 250 

2,240 empty sacks for rice at 10 cents 224 

Threshing 2,240 sacks at 10 cents 224 

Other expenses, threshing, etc 100 

Making a total cost for land, fencing, expenses, etc. -$4,980 

Now as to the results, 160 acres of rice at fifteen barrels to the 
acre would be 2400 barrels, at $3.00 per barrel, this would be worth 
$7,200. This would leave the farmer, after paying for the land 
and fencing it, building his house and buying his team and 
machinery, paying for his seed, and all other expenses possible 
on a farm of this size, $2,220 in clear money. This is not farm- 
ing on paper but is actual results as shown by hundreds of 
different men who have come here and engaged in this industry 
in the past five years. 

A few words in explanation of how rice is raised would not 
be amiss. \Vc know so many living in the North the words rice 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 6l 

farming conveys the idea of living in a swamp or marsh; this is 
far from true, and could they see some of our rise plantations 
with rice growing in one field, and just across the fence, or per- 
haps the road, another field of cotton, sugar cane, corn, or per- 
chance an orchard of peaches, figs or oranges, this idea would 
no longer exist. 

Rice is raised on any level land, the land is plowed and fitted 
as for wheat or any other small grain, after the rice is sown, then 
commences the work of leveling the land, which is done with 
team, and large plows having long mould-boards with which the 
land is thrown up in ridges from one to two feet high all the way 
around the field; this is done to hold the water on the young rice 
while growing. In ordinary seasons the rainfall is sufficient for 
this purpose, but farmers usually provide against a drouth by stor- 
ing up a supply of water in the guUeys, streams and ponds. 
When rice is fully grown and maturing, these levees are cut and 
the water allowed to run off, so the land will become dry and hard 
by harvest. 

Rice is harvested with self-binding machines, and threshed 
with steam threshers, the same as other grain; it is then sacked 
and shipped to the rice mill. Rice is always sold and handled by 
the barrel — 162 pounds make a barrel of rice. From twelve to 
twenty barrels are usually raised on an acre; the average price 
for the past four years has been ^3.00 per barrel, oftentimes going 
as high as ^4.50 to $5.00; thus it may be seen that an acre of rice 
will, under favorable conditions, produce from ^35 to $80, say an 
average of $50. We have known a great many instances where 
men have raised twenty barrels to the acre and sold at S5.00 per 
barrel, thus producing $100 per acre, and that, too, where the land 
was valued at only $5.00 per acre; but these cases are exceptions. 

Freight and passenger receipts at Crowley, not including pre- 
paid freight that was delivered at Crowley, or rice that was 
shipped away, was as follows: 

September 1.7,602.47 

October 5,732.94 

November 5.57I-7I 

December 5,94 1 .34 

^24,848.46 

If we add the freight on rice 78,288.00 

156,576 sacks shipped during these four months gives, 
not including prepaid lots, $103,136.46 



62 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

The real estate firm of W. W. Duson & Bro. has done a 
business during the year aggregating $500,000. Below we give 
the business of four of our largest dealers: 

D. R. January, general machinery agent and rice dealer. .$175,000 

Rocs Kaplan & Co., general merchandise 150,000 

H. W. Carver, general merchandise 125,000 

Jake Frankle, general merchandise 125,000 

Below we give some crop statistics of Acadia Parish for the 
year 1892: 

700,000 barrels rice, valued at $2.50 per barrel $1,750,000 

500 acres in sugar cane, making 1008 barrels of molasses, 

valued at 1 5, 1 20 

410 hogsheads of sugar, valued at 3.075 

Cotton, 1,500 bales, valued at 67,500 

Corn, 2Q9,6oo barrels, valued at 149,800 

Oats, 15,000 bushels, valued at 7.500 

Potatoes, 200,000 bushels, valued at 100,000 

Acadia Parish has a population of 15,000 people; Crowley a 
population of 1500. 

As we have said before, this wonderful advancement has 
not been confined to rice culture alone; the town of Crowley has 
kept even pace with the country surrounding it, and grown in 
five years, from merely a thought in the minds of its promoters 
to a busy, thriving, bustling little city, that from its size, its 
beauty, its notoriety, and the volume of business it does, it can well 
afford to be envied by towns five times its age. 

The rapid growth of Crowley, in fact the wonderful develop- 
ment of Southwest Louisiana has been augumented by, and is 
largely due to the efforts of Messrs. W. W. Duson & Bro. who 
founded the town, and have for the past five years been conduct- 
ing one of the largest real estate businesses of any firm in the 
South. Contrary to the average real estate man, they have pur- 
sued an open, liberal policy in the management of the growth of 
the town and parish; they are men of broad ideas and views, and 
consider nothing in the way of advancement too good for their 
town; they have established a reputation for square and honest 
dealing in every State in the Union. 

To the home seekers and capitalists we say, if you are contem- 
plating a change in your location, we can recommend Acadia Parish, 
La., as a place where your brightest dreams and your most sanguine 
hopes will come nearer being fulfilled and realized than in any 
other spot on earth, and we can recommend the town of Crowley 



ON LINK ()!• THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 63 

as one of the briglitcst and most progressive towns of the Soutli 
to-day. Here you can find good public schools, churches, a college, 
and good society, a kind and intelligent people, made up largely 
of your own people from Northern and Western States, and you 
will come nearer getting a fair return for your labor and capital 
than in any place we know of. If you wish any information 
about the lands of Acadia Parish, or the many chances of invest- 
ing money in the thriving town of Crowley, where every dollar 
that has been put in has doubled every year, write to W. W. 
Duson & Bro. They will tell you facts just as they exist; if you 
wish to go South they can get you as low railroad rates, cheaper 
board and better accommodations for less money than any one else. 
If you visit Southwest Louisiana, call on them and they will 
show you all over the country in good conveyances, free of 
charge, and make your stay in that beautiful country a pleasant 
one indeed; and if you invest in their real estate you will never 
regret it, and if you do not you cannot help but say that you saw 
the finest country on the American Continent, and that you met 
gentlemen, and were well treated. 

Respectfully, C. L. Crippen. 

LA FAYETTE, LA. 

La Fayette, La., is situated on the Southern Pacific Railroad, 
144 miles west of New Orleans, and makes an important division 
of that gigantic railway trunk line. Connection is here made 
with what is known as the "Alexandria Tap," a feeder of the 
Southern Pacific System that communicates with the Texas & 
Pacific Railroad at Cheneyville, La. 

The Southern Pacific Company has located at this point an 
extensive railroad yard, as also one of its principal roundhouses, 
besides a workshop, a capacious freight depot, a storehouse and 
other minor buildings and conveniences; all of which gives to 
La Fayette more than ordinary importance as a railroad center, 
present and prospective. 

The subject of this article is the county seat of La Fayette 
Parish, the acknowledged garcien spot of Southwestern Louisiana. 
Previous to 1880, when the Morgan Railroad (now forming a divi- 
sion of the grand Southern Pacific Railway System) was con- 
structed through this country, the town of La Fayette, with its 
handful of population, remained practically unknown to the out- 
side world. However, the wonderful natural resources of the 



64 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

country tributary to La Fayette were soon effectually stimulated 
and developed under the beneficial influence of the railroad until 
it has gained its present creditable and enviable position and 
importance in the business world, without having had at any time 
a single agency or circumstance to " boom " it. 

The population of La Fayette now numbers 3,000 souls, and a 
continuation of the natural and healthy growth that has charac- 
terized the progress of this little city in the past, is assured for 
the future. 

Among a large number of business houses and other institu- 
tions that would do credit to a community of greater pretentions 
than La Fayette, may be mentioned a substantial and attractive 
brick and iron bank, regularly chartered and doing a prosperous 
business; the handsome and capacious railroad hotel, operated 
by the Crescent News and Hotel Co., that justly enjoys the repu- 
tation of being one of the very best houses of its kind in the State; 
a commodious and well appointed high school building, awaiting 
completion, to be launched in the good work of education; 
Mount Carmel Convent, a Catholic educational institution, occu- 
pying a whole square of ground, arranged and distributed so as to 
make it one of the attractions of the place; substantial and impos- 
ing public buildings. Church edifices are owned by the following 
denominations: Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, (Episcopalians 
worship in this church), Israelites. The negroes worship in 
separate churches of their own. La Fayette also possesses several 
mercantile establishments doing a business of from $50,000 to 
$100,000 a year, and three extensive lumberyards. The La Fayette 
Advertiser, one of the oldest newspapers in the South, was pur- 
chased in the beginning of this year by a syndicate of home busi- 
ness men, and occupies the front rank in liberal and progressive 
journalism. 

Three of the largest manufacturing concerns of agricultural 
implements in the United States (Osborne, McCormick, Deering), 
recognizing the value and importance of La Fayette as a distribu- 
ting point for Southwestern Louisiana, have established general 
agencies or depots here. The Waters-Pierce Oil Co., for the same 
reason, has had erected an oil depot at this place. 

Of the fertility and general desirability of the lands of the 
Parish of La Fayette too much cannot be said, and the climate and 
health of the country is most excellent. The soil is extremely 
rich as a rule, and has remarkable depth. The principal products 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 65 

of the country are cane, cotton, rice, corn and potatoes (sweet 
and Irish). Many other things could be profitably raised. Jute, 
ramie, barley and tobacco grow well here, as also such varieties 
of the domestic grasses as clover, red-top, millet, alfalfa and Japan 
clover. All of the esculents grow to perfection and could be cul- 
tivated with profit, if truck farming were engaged in to a great 
enough extent to justify the railroads in making special prepara- 
tions for handling this particular line of traffic. Such fruits as 
peaches, pears, plums, apricots, figs, etc., do well, and a variety of 
berries grow wild in abundance. 

A business men's association has recently been organized in 
La Fayette for furthering manufacturing and other enterprises 
and advance the general condition of the country. One of the 
first undertakings of this association will be to secure the building 
of a railroad from La Fayette to Abbeville, La., and from thence to 
deep water in Vermillion Bay. Forming a part of this railroad 
project also, is the erection of two important manufacturing 
industries, viz., a central sugar refinery, and a cotton factory that 
shall employ no less than 150 operatives, and to this end a bonus 
of Sio.ooo and $20,000 respectively will be offered for the estab- 
lishment of these enterprises. 

La Fayette offers an excellent opening for an ice factory, a 
furniture factory, and a sash, door and blind factory. Outside 
capital would find ready and profitable investment here and a 
hearty welcome. 




'^C 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 6/ 

JEANERETTE, LA. 
S. L. Gary, Esq. 

Dear Sir: — The second largest town in the Parish of Iberia is 
situated on the Bayou Teche and also on the Southern Pacific 
Railroad, nearly equi-distant between New Orleans and Lake 
Charles. It has a population of 2,000. Twelve miles to the 
west is the parish seat. New Iberia, and fourteen miles east 
is the parish seat of St. Mary's County, Franklin. It is also sur- 
rounded by numerous small towns and villages adjacent. A fine 
line of passenger and freight steamers ply regularly to New 
Orleans, and the Southern Pacific Railroad in connection has 
several steamers of its own plying to Morgan City, there connect- 
ing with the Gulf ports. The place is also connected by telephone 
to all surrounding towns and sugar refineries, being situated in 
the heart of the sugar belt, and only eight miles direct to the Gulf 
of Mexico. During the grinding season the whistles of twenty- 
seven sugar houses and refineries can be heard any morning. 
Within the town the large Vaufrey Refinery is situated, producing 
this year (1892) nearly 3,000,000 pounds of sugar, and in sight of 
the town the three other large refineries of Linden, Right Way 
and Union, producing upwards of another 4,000,000 pounds. Out- 
side of the cities of New Orleans and Shreveport, we have the 
finest and largest foundry in the State, and ice works. There is 
more freight handled here than any other place in proportion in 
the State. The railroad company, with its already large depot, 
was compelled to put up another addition of lOO feet to handle 
its fast-increasing business. It has three churches, Catholic, 
Methodist and Presbyterian; the former predominates. Two 
schools, one convent and public schools, a system of water works, 
a fine fire department, steamer, hose reels, hook and ladder com- 
panies with good engine building, neat little opera house, and 
good markets. What this place and surrounding country needs is 
immigration. A national bank would be quite a necessity, also a 
newspaper and job printing establishment, and it would be a good 
opening for wood working machinery. It has two large saw and 

shingle mills and cooperage works. 

T. C. Akers. 



68 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA. 

THE RESOURCES OF VERMILLION PARISH. 

Location. — Vermillion Parish borders on the Gulf of Mexico, 
and lies between 29° 30' and 30° 10' north latitude; the 15th 
meridian of longitude, west of Washington, passes through this 
parish. It is forty miles long by forty miles wide, of irregular 
width, and contains about 1,600 square miles area. It is bounded 
on the east by the Parish of Iberia, on the south by Vermillion 
Bay and the Gulf, on the west by Cameron Parish, and on the 
north by La Fayette and Acadia Parishes. 

Physical Geography. — The parish is mostly prairie, level and 
gently undulating, nowhere rising into hills or sinking into gullies. 
It is easily drained. The parish abounds in beautiful lakes. 
Vermillion River, affording tide-water navigation throughout the 
year, traverses the whole length of the parish from north to 
south, emptying itself into Vermillion Bay. 

Climate. — The thermometer averages 87° in summer, some- 
times it runs up to 90°, rarely to 95°. In winter it rarely falls 
to 30°. 

Soil. — The surface is a rich clay loam, of a black color, from 
a depth of six inches to one foot; underneath is a stratum of light 
clay gradually changing to yellow. It is more fertile on the river 
than in the prairie, yet both yield remunerative crops to those 
who cultivate it. It needs but little fertilizing to keep it in good 
condition. 

Crops and Fruits. — Sugar cane, cotton, rice, broom corn, 
tobacco, sorghum, grass, corn, oats, sweet potatoes, peas, etc., grow 
well. Sugar cane on new land will yield from fifteen to twenty 
tons per acre; at S3. 50 per ton, this would be, at the lowest esti- 
mate, S50 per acre. Here the peach, pear, plum, and a few 
varieties of apples, flourish. The orange, fig and pomegranate do 
well. Nuts of various kinds grow throughout the bounds of the 
parish. Berries rarely do better elsewhere. 

Dairying. — The people give no attention to this occupation 

Timber. — On Vermillion and Mcrmenteau Rivers, Bayou Que 
Tortue, Coulee Kinney, and Gross Isle Coulee are considerable 
quantities of timber suitable for fuel, but for fencing purposes it 
is very scarce. For buildings it must be brought from the Parish 
of Calcasieu, and Bayou Teche at various prices, ranging from $12 
to $20 per thousand feet. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. 69 

Fencing. — The barbed wire has revolutionized the old system 
of fencing. 

Land and Prices. — The lands in the prairies are more abund- 
ant and cheaper than on the bayous. Prices range from $5 to $50, 
according to locality. In the last five years, lands, as emigration 
has come in, have greatly advanced in value. White, Broussard 
& Greene, a real estate agency at Abbeville, may be addressed 
for all information needed in this line. 

Vermillion River. — Running from north to south, a little east 
of the center of the parish and west of the 15th meridian, is the 
Vermillion River, one of the prettiest streams in Louisiana. This 
stream is navigable at all seasons for the largest steamboats from 
La Fayette to its mouth. It is above overflow, and does not con- 
nect with the Mississippi River. The work of dredging the river 
is now going on, the last Congress having made an appropriation 
for that purpose. The banks of this river are heavily wooded, 
and during six months of the year Vermillion River flows its clear 
waters through a channel with banks of evergreen. The river is 
from twenty to forty feet deep. 

Abbeville. — This is the name of the seat of justice. It is 
located on Vermillion River. It has a population of 1,200. It has 
one of the finest court houses in the State, as also a brick jail. 
There is a Catholic and Methodist church for the whites, and two 
for the colored. There is a convent and three public schools 
affording educational facilities for all. A high school is agitated. 
Seven lawyers and six physicians are domiciled here. Two week- 
ly papers supply the reading public with the current news. There 
is one hotel and several private boarding houses, three drug stores, 
and ten business houses selling dry goods and groceries. All 
other pursuits and callings are well supplied. A sugar refinery, a 
rice and oil mill would be profitable investments. 

Population, Religion, Etc. — A large proportion are the 
descendants of Acadian refugees from Nova Scotia. To this class 
must be added a large number of Americans from the Middle 
and Northern States, who are here to stay and improve the 
country. The Americans are Protestants, but nearly all the French 
are Catholics. Public schools have been opened in every neigh- 
borhood and run for ten months in the year. 

Cattle and Sheep. — This is a most excellent locality for 
raising fine stock, but few, if any, have engaged in it. 



70 SOUTHWESTERN LOUISIANA 

Water. — Stock water is plentiful, but for the inhabitants 
cisterns and wells must be supplied. 

Game. — There are plenty of partridges, squirrels and hares; 
geese, brants and ducks flock to the seacoast by the millions 
during the fall and winter. Woodcocks come and spend this 
season here. Wilson snipe, plover, curlews and Bartramian sand- 
piper are also to be found abundantly. 

Fish. — Fish and oysters are abundant along the seacoast, in 
the bays, and in the salt water bayous. 

Health. — A healthier country cannot be found. The climate 
is said to be especially favorable for the relief of those afBicted 
with pulmonary diseases. 

Seashore. — There are several high ridges which do not suffer 
from inundations. These are very favorable for pleasure resorts. 

Railroads. — The Southern Pacific has extended a branch 
from New Iberia to Abbeville, the parish seat, with a prospective 
extension westward to Lake Charles at no distant day. Another 
road is now proposed from La Fayette to Abbeville, and from 
thence to the Gulf. There is a steamer daily employed on the 
waters of Vermillion River. 

Industry. — The people are not a manufacturing, but agricul- 
tural people; however, there are two refineries on Vermillion River. 

Government. — The government is now well administered, and 
gives renewed energy and satisfaction to the people. 

Traveling Expenses. — It is 146 miles from New Orleans to 
Abbeville, and the price of a ticket, S4.60. Freights by rail will 
be the same as before, as per rail and steamer. The schedule of 
prices may be had by applying to the freight office at the depot 
at Abbeville. 



ON LINE OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC. /I 

VALUE AND PRICE OF LAND. 

In Southwestern Louisiana the vakie and price of land has 
borne no proper comparison. Up to this date the United States 
and the State have both held large bodies of land to be given as 
homesteads, and the State land being held at the nominal price of 
I2J^ to 75 cents per acre has, to a large extent, governed prices. 
Now the prairie lands are all in second hands, timber lands only 
remaining with the Government. Notwithstanding these con- 
ditions, prairie lands have advanced in price to an average of $8 
per acre, unimproved, and $12 per acre, improved, with a range 
of $5 to $100 per acre, dependent upon location and condition. 
These prices are believed to be lower, considering climate, 
products and general conditions, than elsewhere, and must, in the 
very nature of things, go much higher in the immediate future. 
Grass, fruit, sugar, rice and products of the temperate and semi- 
tropical climates, an abundant rainfall, early and late seasons, sea- 
board markets by rail and water, healthfulness, volume of timber, 
enterprise and prosperity of its people — all point to much higher 
prices for real estate. It requires but a glance to see that present 
prices are far below the value. First, the percentage they will pay 
(other things being equal) should determine the price. Lands 
paying $5 net per acre the price would be $100 per acre. 

In England government securities pay two per cent, at par 
or £2 per ^100; land paying £1 per acre brings ;^I00 and 
the ownership of land carries the higher position. The landlord 
is the aristocrat of Europe; but in America government bonds 
at three per cent, are par, while lands in some States paying $<, 
bring 5iOO and in other States the price is little different from 
the annual rental. Coming from a State where land, selling at 
$100 per acre rented for $4 to $5, just imagine the feelings of a 
man, who in Southwest Louisiana ten years ago was offered land 
at 12^ cents to ^1.25 per acre that grew S20 to $100 per acre in 
rice and S50 to $100 in sugar, at a profit of $10 to S50. It fairly 
took a man's breath and the effect in many cases was just the 
reverse of the natural. Do you wonder that the first question 
was: "What's the matter?" That question is in part answered by 
the great prosperity of the people and by enhanced prices, and 
will be fully answered when these lands take their proper position 
in price with other countries. 

For further information, circulars, books and rates of trans- 
portation, apply to S. L. Gary, Northern Emigration Agent, 
Manchester, Iowa. 



Choice Lands in Texas. 



fHE RAILROAD SYSTEM OF^ TEXAS having brought 
into easy access the lands originally granted the 
Houston & Texas Central, Galveston, Harrisburg & San 
Antonio, Texas & New Orleans, and Gulf, Western 
Texas & Pacific Railway Companies, they are now 
offered to the public on terms and at prices such as 
to put them in reach of every person desiring to own 
his homestead. 

Lands for the farmer, the planter, the gardener, the 
stock-raiser, and millman, which will be sold at reason- 
able price, on long time, and at low rate of interest. 

There is a wide field here from which to select, 
embracing such a variety of lands that there is no 
reason why all should not obtain locations suitable to 
their particular ideas and desires. There is ample 
room for an almost unlimited number of energetic 
people, as Texas is a State that can not be equaled in 
the proportion of acreage adapted to the highest 
degree of cultivation; all it needs is population'. The 
low price of lands, great fertility of soil, low rates of 
taxation, and munificent educational endowments, are 
inducements that no other State can offer. 

For detailed terms of sale, prices, information, maps, 

and pamphlets, address 

C. C. GIBBS, 

Land Commissioner, 

HOUSTON, TEXAS. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



